
1 

III 




'I 




Class __LBi_a&23- 

Book--T?ft 

Copyright N° 



COMRIGHT DEPOSfE 



TRENDS OF SCHOOL COSTS 



TRENDS OF SCHOOL 
COSTS 

W. RANDOLPH BURGESS 




DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION 

130 EAST TWENTY-SECOND STREET 

NEW YORK CITY 






Copyright, 1920, by 
the russell sage foundation 



Printed June, 1920; 2,400 copies 



WM'F. FELL CO 'PRINTERS 
PHILADELPHIA 



SEP 20 1920 
©CU576474 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

List of Tables 7 

List of Diagrams 9 



I. The Mounting Cost of Education 13 

The increasing number of school children 13 

The increasing cost of education 17 

Trends of attendance and cost 19 

An analysis of expenditure 21 

Summary 23 

II. Index Numbers for Teachers' Salaries 25 

The method of the index number 26 

The Aldrich Report 29 

Four index numbers for teachers' salaries 30 

Trends of the four index numbers 35 

Percentage increases 1841 to 1920 40 

Trends in the past five years 43 

Summary 44 

III. Teachers' Salaries and the Cost of Living 46 

Price changes 1841 to 1919 46 

Changes in standards of living 47 

A cost of living index number 50 

Food as a basis 51 

The trend of the index number 54 

Teachers' salaries and the cost of living 56 

The situation reversed, 1915 to 1920 57 

Wage and cost trends for women teachers 59 

Summary 63 

IV. Salaries of Teachers and of Other Workers 65 

Wages and the cost of living 65 

Wage index numbers for 80 years 67 

Wages of other workers 71 

Country teachers and unskilled laborers 72 

City teachers and artisans 76 



CHAPTER PAGE 

Per cent increases in salaries and wages 79 

The trend since 1915 81 

The wage value of the teacher's salary 81 

The artisan's wage a working standard 85 

Summary 86 

V. The Trend of Building Costs 88 

An index number for building costs 90 

Increases 1913 to 1920 94 

Actual costs in Cleveland 97 

An index of cost changes 99 

Summary 105 

VI. Doubling the School Budget 107 

Salary levels 107 

New buildings 110 

Other expenditures 112 

A summary estimate 114 

Will prices and wages fall? 115 

Summary 117 

VII. Sources of Income 119 

The general property tax 120 

School costs outstrip property values 121 

Keeping down the tax rate 126 

An increasing share for schools 128 

Sources of increased revenues 130 

Summary 134 

Appendix I. — Method of determining trend lines 136 

Index 141 



LIST OF TABLES 

TABLE PAGE 

1. Average daily attendance and annual expenditure in 

public schools of the United States. 1870 to 1918 15 

2. Average weekly salaries of teachers. 1841 to 1920 32 

3. Teachers' salaries from 1915 to 1920, in per cents of 

figures for 1915 43 

4. Costs in cents of certain necessities 47 

5. Weekly wages of laborers, artisans, and teachers 49 

6. Index numbers for wholesale commodity prices and 

retail food prices — two wars 50 

7. Cost of living per week from 1841 to 1920 for a small 

family using the same amounts of the same com- 
modities over the entire period 54 

8. Weekly wages of laborers and artisans. 1841 to 1920 71 

9. Wages in the building trades, 1913 to 1920, in 10 

cities, in per cents of figures for 1913 95 

10. Cost in cents per cubic foot of school buildings con- 

structed in Cleveland. 1913 to 1919 98 

11. Cost per cubic foot of school buildings constructed 

in Cleveland, 1913 to 1919, in per cents of figures 
for 1913 100 

12. Cost in cents per cubic foot of general construction 

of elementary school buildings in New York City 
according to lowest bids received each month in 
1919 and 1920, and per cent these costs were of 1913 
figures 101 

13. Cost per unit class room of a 16-room elementary 

school in Boston. 1916 and December, 1919 103 



TABLE PAGE 

14. School expenditures in the United States other than 

salaries and outlays. 1918 113 

15. School costs in 1920 for each $1,000 spent in 1915 115 

16. Per cent of school revenue derived from different 

sources 119 

17. Assessed value of property and current expenses of 

schools per inhabitant in 40 cities. 1880 to 1918 123 



LIST OF DIAGRAMS 

DIAGRAM PAGE 

1. Average daily attendance at public schools in the 

United States. 1870 to 1918 16 

2. Annual expenditures for public education in the 

United States. 1870 to 1918 18 

3. Trends of average daily attendance and expenditures, 

1870 to 1918, in per cents of figures for 1870 20 

4. Per cents different items were of total school expendi- 

tures in the United States in the year 1917-18 22 

5. Weekly salaries of women teachers in rural schools. 

1841 to 1920 26 

6. Weekly salaries of men and women teachers in rural 

schools. 1841 to 1920 36 

7. Weekly salaries of men and women teachers in city 

schools. 1841 to 1920 37 

8. Trends of weekly salaries of men and women teachers 

in rural and city schools. 1841 to 1920 39 

9. Trends of teachers' salaries in per cents of the figures 

for 1841 41 

10. Cost of living per week from 1841 to 1920 for a small 

family using the same amounts of the same com- 
modities over the entire period 55 

11. Trends of teachers' salaries compared with the trend 

of the cost of living, in per cents of the figures for 
1841 57 

12. Teachers' salaries and the cost of living each year 

from 1915 to 1920 in per cents of the figures for 1915 58 

13. Average weekly salaries of women teachers in rural 

and city schools compared with the cost of living. 
1841 to 1920 59 

14 Per cent the average salary of women teachers was 

of the cost of living each year from 1841 to 1920 61 

15. Weekly wages of laborers and artisans. 1841 to 1920 69 



16. Weekly salaries of men and women teachers in rural 

schools compared with weekly wages of laborers. 
1841 to 1920 74 

17. Trends of salaries of men and women teachers in 

rural schools compared with trend of wages of 
laborers. 1841 to 1915 75 

18. Weekly salaries of men and women teachers in city 

schools compared with weekly wages of artisans. 
1841 to 1920 77 

19. Trends of salaries of men and women teachers in city 

schools compared with trend of artisans' wages. 
1841 to 1915 78 

20. Trends of salaries of teachers compared with the 

trends of wages of laborers and artisans. 1841 to 
1915 80 

21. Salaries of teachers and wages of laborers and artisans 

each year from 1915 to 1920 in per cents of the 
figures for 1915 81 

22. Per cent the average salary of women teachers was 

of the wages of laborers each year. 1841 to 1920 83 

23. Per cent the average salary of women teachers was of 

the wages of artisans each year. 1841 to 1920 84 

24. Per cent of school expenditures in the United States 

devoted to sites, buildings, and equipment at five 
year intervals. 1890 to 1918 89 

25. Relative prices of lumber and building materials from 

1841 to 1920, in per cents of the figures for 1860 91 

26. Trends of artisans' wages, the cost of building ma- 

terials, and estimated cost of building, in per cents 

of the figures for 1841 93 

27. The cost of building materials, the wages of artisans 

and laborers, and the estimated cost of building 
each year from 1913 to 1920, in per cents of the 
figures for 1913 96 

28. Cost per cubic foot of different elements of buildings 

constructed in Cleveland from 1913 to 1919 99 

29. Outlays for schools for each inhabitant in cities of 

more than 30,000 population. 1915 to 1918 111 

30. Sources of net revenue receipts of 146 cities in 1918 120 



31. Assessed value of property and school current ex- 

penditures for each inhabitant in 40 cities from 
1880 to 1918 in per cents of 1880 levels 125 

32. School costs for each $1,000 of assessed value of 

property in 40 cities. 1880 to 1918 126 

33. Methods of meeting advancing municipal costs in 40 

cities 127 

34. Departmental expenses of cities of more than 30,000 

population in 1918 129 



TRENDS OF SCHOOL COSTS 

CHAPTER I 

THE MOUNTING COST OF EDUCATION 

Fifty years ago, in 1870, the United States made 
the first annual accounting of its school children. 
Through the agency of its newly created Bureau of 
Education, the National Government made the first 
of a series of annual reports setting forth the most 
important numerical facts with regard to its public 
schools. 

The Increasing Number of School Children 
This first accounting showed that there were about 
4,000,000 children attending the public schools of the 
United States. Each year since that date the Bu- 
reau of Education has made a similar accounting of 
the school children, and the latest figures, for the 
year 1918, show that the school children have in- 
creased in number from 4,000,000 to more than 
15,500,000. If the figures for the entire half century 
from 1870 to 1920 were complete, they would un- 
doubtedly show that the children in average daily 
attendance have nearly quadrupled in number during 
that time. 

13 



This increase has been far more rapid than that in 
the total population of the country. While the entire 
population is about three times as great in 1920 as it 
was 50 years earlier, in 1870, the attendance in the 
public schools is nearly four times as great now as it 
was 50 years ago. It is noteworthy that this marked 
gain in the school population has been made despite 
the fact that the proportion of children to the whole 
population has been falling off slowly but steadily 
during the past 50 years. The explanation for thei 
increase in school attendance, despite the gradual 
shrinkage in the proportion of children of school age, 
is to be found in the better enforcement of laws and 
regulations for compulsory attendance, and in the 
fact that children now remain in school more years 
than they used to. Each year somewhat larger 
numbers of children remain in school long enough to 
reach the upper grades and the high schools. 

The figures showing the number of children in 
average daily attendance in the public schools of the 
country are given in Table 1, which also shows the 
total expenditures for the support of the schools each 
year. The data are from the Statistical Abstract of 
the United States for 1918, with the exception of the 
figures for the last two years of the series. The data 
for 1918 are presented through the courtesy of the 
United States Bureau of Education from the Biennial 
Report in process of compilation but not yet pub- 
lished (March, 1920). The figures for 1917 are esti- 
mated from those for 1916 and 1918. 



14 



TABLE 1.— AVERAGE DAILY ATTENDANCE AND ANNUAL EX- 
PENDITURE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
1870 TO 1918 





Thousands of children in aver- 


Thousands of dollars ex- 


Year 


age attendance 


pended for education 


1870 


4,077 


$63,397 


1871 


4,545 


69,108 


1872 


4,659 


74,234 


1873 


4,745 


76,238 


1874 


5,051 


80,054 


1875 


5,248 


83,504 


1876 


5,291 


83,083 


1877 


5,427 


79,440 


1878 


5,783 


79,083 


1879 


5,876 


76,192 


1880 


6,144 


78,095 


1881 


6,146 


83,643 


1882 


6,331 


88,990 


1883 


6,652 


96,750 


1884 


7,056 


103,213 


1885 


7,298 


110,328 


1886 


7,526 


113,323 


1887 


7,682 


115,784 


1888 


7,907 


124,245 


1889 


8,006 


132,540 


1890 


8,154 


140,507 


1891 


8,408 


147,495 


1892 


8,561 


155,817 


1893 


8,837 


164,171 


1894 


9,263 


172,503 


1895 


9,549 


175,809 


1896 


9,781 


183,499 


1897 


10,053 


187,682 


1898 


10,356 


194,293 


1899 


10,328 


200,155 


1900 


10,633 


214,965 


1901 


10,715 


227,466 


1902 


11,064 


238,262 


1903 


11,053 


252,804 


1904 


11,318 


273,216 


1905 


11,482 


291,617 


1906 


11,712 


307,766 


19Q7 


11,926 


336,898 


1908 


12,154 


371,344 


1909 


12,685 


401,398 


1910 


12,827 


426,250 


1911 


12,872 


446,727 


1912 


13,302 


482,887 


1913 


13,614 


521,546 


1914 


14,216 


555,077 


1915 


14,965 


605,461 


1916 


15,359 


640,717 


1917 


15,454 


702,197 


1918 


15,549 


763,678 



15 



In Diagram 1 the irregular line presents in graphic 
form the data of the second column in Table 1. It 
shows how the children in average daily attendance 
have increased during the period from 1870 to 1918. 
Running through the irregular line there is a straight 
line showing the general trend of this increase. This 

MUlion 
16 



12 






1870 



1880 



1890 



1900 



1910 



1920 



Diagram 1. — Average daily attendance at public schools in the 
United States. 1870 to 1918 



trend line is the one which most accurately repre- 
sents the general trend of the points which make up 
the irregular line. 

Since trend lines will be used throughout the dis- 
cussions which follow, it is worth while to consider 
them with some care at this point. The straight line 

16 



in Diagram 1 is no mere approximation. It is a 
graphic representation of a secular or long distance 
trend as distinguished from seasonal, or annual, or 
short time variations. It is the line which most accu- 
rately expresses the general direction of an irregular 
series of points. 1 

The trend of average daily attendance in the public 
schools, as represented by the line, begins in 1870 
with 3,853,720 pupils in attendance, and increases 
228,470 each year until it reaches the high point of 
14,820,280 in 1918. The annual increase is nearly 6 
per cent of the initial number of children. To be ex- 
act, it amounts to 5.929 per cent. 

The Increasing Cost of Education 
In the third column of Table 1 are figures showing the 
total cost of education in the public schools each 
year. They show that the expense of schooling has 
increased far more rapidly than the number of chil- 
dren. While pupils have been increasing from about 
4,000,000 to nearly 16,000,000, the expenditures have 
gone from $63,000,000 to $764,000,000. The number 

1 A secular trend is determined by the method of least 
squares. It may be denned as a line such that the squares of 
the deviations from it are less than they would be from any 
other line. It is the "regression" line familiar to students of 
correlation. If one were to compute in the present case the 
coefficient of correlation between the years elapsed from 1870 
to 1918 and the children in average daily attendance, and then 
find the regression line based on the subject, or time, series, 
the result would be what is here termed the trend line. The 
computation of this particular trend is shown in detail in Ap- 
pendix I, and the same method has been followed in com- 
puting the other trend lines used in this volume. 
2 17 



of children has quadrupled, but the number of dollars 
spent for their schooling has gone up more than 
twelve-fold. At the beginning of the period, each 
year of schooling cost about $15 per child, but at the 
end of the period it cost nearly $50. 



Millions 
of dollars 



600 



700 



600 



600 



400 



300 



200 



100 



( 

// 
if 
// 

// 

77 
// 
// 
// 
__/ 

/ / 
/ / 
/ f 

/ / 

/ / 
/ / 
/ / 
• / 
/ / 

_ JL 

/ 

• J 

s S 

J.-^^^** ____________ ____________ . 



1870 



1880 



1890 



1900 



1910 



1920 



Diagram 2. — Annual expenditures for public education in the 
United States. 1870 to 1918 



The progress of this increasing expenditure is shown 
in graphic form in Diagram 2. Here the irregular line 
shows the actual money expenditures each year, and 
the smooth curved line shows their general trend. 

18 



This diagram differs fundamentally from Diagram 
1 because the facts are different in nature. Here it is 
impossible to present a straight line showing the 
general trend of the series because the trend is clearly 
a curve which becomes increasingly steep as the 
years pass by. In this case the trend line is a curve 
joining a series of points so placed that each is a little 
more than five per cent farther from the base line 
than its predecessor. 1 

Trends of Attendance and Cost 
Diagram 3 shows in comparison the straight trend 
line of increasing attendance and the curved trend of 
increasing cost. They both start at the same point in 
1870, and this point is arbitrarily taken as 100 per 
cent. It will be remembered that at that time the 
education of approximately four million school chil- 
dren cost about $63,000,000. During the 48 years 
that have followed the children in attendance have 
increased almost steadily at the rate of just less than 
six per cent per year over their original number. The 
exact rate has already been given as 5.929 per cent. 

During the same period of time the cost of edu- 
cating the children has gone forward at a constantly 

1 This curve was made by finding the logarithm corre- 
sponding to the expenditure of the first year of the series and 
that corresponding to the expenditure in the last year. The 
difference between these two logarithms was found and divided 
by the number of steps in the series. This difference was 
added to the logarithm of the first number once for the second 
year in the series, twice for the third year, three times for the 
fourth year and so on until it had been added 48 times. The 
numbers corresponding to these new logarithms are the 
points of the curve. 

19 



accelerating rate. Each year's expenditures have 
tended to be something more than five per cent 
greater than those of the preceding year. The exact 
figure is 5.337 per cent. The children have increased 
in arithmetical progression, but the expense of 



Per 
oent 



1300 



1100 



900 



700 



600 



300 



100 




1870 



1880 



1890 



1900 



1910 



1920 



Diagram 3. — Trends of average daily attendance and ex- 
penditures, 1870 to 1918, in per cents of figures for 1870 



schooling them has increased in geometrical pro- 
gression. These conditions have their exact counter- 
part in ordinary financial practice. The children 
have increased precisely as would a sum of money at 

20 



simple interest in which the annual increment is a 
fixed percentage of the original amount. The expen- 
ditures have increased at compound interest, and the 
annual increment has been a percentage of all the 
previous increments plus the original base. 

It is further noteworthy that there is no present 
evidence of any tendency on the part of the expendi- 
tures to fall off. It is probable that if the data were 
available for 1919 and 1920 the curve of expenses 
would be found to continue its upward tendency with 
greater rapidity than in any previous years. 

The situation may be summarized to this point by 
noting that the children attending public schools 
have, for half a century, been increasing more rapidly 
than the population, that the expense has been in- 
creasing far more rapidly than the children, and that 
the rate of expenditure is itself increasing in a con- 
stantly accelerating manner. 

An Analysis of Expenditure 
Considerably more than one-half of all school ex- 
penditures go to pay the salaries of teachers and 
other school officers. Of $764,000,000 spent for school 
purposes in the United States in the school year 1917- 
18, the sum of $436,000,000, or 57 per cent, was paid 
as salaries to superintendents, principals, and teach- 
ers, and an additional seven per cent as wages to 
janitors and engineers. Next to salaries and wages 
the largest object of expenditure was new buildings 
and equipment usually designated as outlays, in- 
volving $119,000,000, an amount equal to nearly 16 

21 



per cent of the total for all purposes. Taken together 
these two items constitute nearly four-fifths of the 
school budget of the country. No other single item of 
expenditure approaches either of them in size. Next 
in order come fuel, water, and light. 



Interest and ^ 
fixed charges * 

Text books 
and supplies 



Maintenance 3# 

{ .Other 3# 




Diagram 4. — Per cents different items were of total school 
expenditures in the United States in the year 1917-18 



The comparative size of the more important ex- 
penditures is shown in Diagram 4 in which the seg- 
ments of the circle are proportional to the per cents 
which different items of expenditure were of the total 
spent for schools in the United States during the 

22 



school year 1917-18. The percentages are taken from 
advance sheets of the biennial report of the Com- 
missioner of Education for the years 1917 and 1918. 
The very large proportion of all expenditures which 
was devoted to the two items of salaries and new 
buildings may fairly be taken as typical of educa- 
tional practice in this country from the time public 
schools were organized. Reports of the Commissioner 
of Education carry the figure for teachers' salaries 
alone back to 1870 when they constituted 60 per cent 
of all expenditures, and the figure for outlays back to 
1890 when buildings were nearly 19 per cent of the 
total budget. 

In view of the absorption of so large a proportion 
of all school expenditures by the two objects, sal- 
aries and new buildings, and in view of the scattering 
of other expenses among so many and so varied types, 
any account of trends of school costs must devote it- 
self largely to a discussion of teachers' salaries and the 
cost of the construction of buildings. Succeeding 
chapters of this book will deal with these two ele- 
ments of school cost at greater length. 

Summary 
1. The population of the United States is in 1920 
about three times as great as it was in 1870, 50 years 
ago. 

2. The number of children in attendance at public 
schools is nearly four times as great as in 1870. 

3. The amount spent for public schools is more 
than 12 times as great as it was in 1870. 

23 



4. School costs are advancing at a constantly ac- 
celerating rate. Each succeeding year shows a greater 
increase in the rate of expenditure. 

5. Salaries and new buildings absorb four-fifths 
of all school expenditures. Other costs are scattered 
among many minor items. 

6. A discussion of trends of school costs must be 
largely devoted to teachers' salaries and the cost of 
buildings. 



24 



CHAPTER II 

INDEX NUMBERS FOR TEACHERS' 
SALARIES 

In the year 1841 women teachers in country schools 
were receiving a salary of about two dollars and fifty 
cents for each week they taught. This salary in- 
cluded the value of the board which many of them 
received as a part of their compensation. In actual 
cash they received about one dollar and twenty-five 
cents a week. For the period of 80 years, from that 
time until the present, there has been a practically 
continuous rise in the salaries of these teachers. 

The course of this increase is shown in Diagram 5. 
The curved line shows the actual weekly salaries, 
year by year, while the straight line shows the general 
trend computed by the same method as that used in 
Diagram 1 in the first chapter. Salaries rose grad- 
ually until the latter years of the Civil War when a 
rapid rise began, reaching its peak in 1875. In the 
period of financial depression which marked the clos- 
ing years of that decade salaries fell away somewhat, 
but the gains that had been achieved were very 
largely retained. From 1880 until 1900 salaries con- 
tinued on very much the same level with slight in- 
creases, but at the beginning of the new century 

25 



they started to climb to the present high point. 
During the 80 years a gain of about 600 per cent was 
made or, to put it another way, weekly salaries of 
women country teachers are now seven times as large 
as in 1841. 



1 ft 


















10 














^+"1 


/.< 


6 






]*'' 


^'' 


€ ''< 








-' 


^^ 















1840 



1860 1800 



1870 



1880 1890 



Diagram 5. — Weekly salaries of women teachers in rural 
schools. 1841 to 1920 



The Method of the Index Number 
The method used in computing these figures for the 
salaries of country teachers is that of the index 
number. It is desirable to comment at this point on 
the characteristics of the method because it will be 
used elsewhere throughout the book to measure the 
trends of wages and of prices. The index number, as 

26 



a statistical device, is especially adapted to this par- 
ticular purpose. The method of procedure in this 
instance was to secure and tabulate the figures for the 
average weekly salaries of women teachers in twenty 
rural counties. These figures were fortunately avail- 
able in the reports of the Superintendents of Public 
Instruction, or similar state officers, in ten different 
states. 1 Figures were used from the following coun- 
ties: Barnstable and Franklin, Massachusetts; 
Carroll and Grafton, New Hampshire; Windham and 
Tolland, Connecticut; Adams and Tioga, Pennsyl- 
vania; Noble and Orange, Indiana; Gallatin and 
Greene, Illinois; Green and Calumet, Wisconsin; 
Boone and Bremer, Iowa; Brown and Butler, Kan- 
sas; and Merced and Shasta, California. These 
counties were selected because they were predom- 
inantly rural in character with no large centers of 
urban population, and also because the figures for 
them were available for long terms of years. 

The same counties were used over the entire period 
of 80 years giving 20 quotations for each year except 
for a few years at the beginning and end of the period 
when a somewhat smaller number of quotations was 
available. 2 To secure the index number, a simple 

1 The figures are usually recorded as average monthly sal- 
aries. Monthly salaries were divided by four to give a figure 
for weekly salaries for weeks actually worked on the basis of 
20 school days to the month. 

2 At both the beginning and end of the period it was neces- 
sary to resort to the method of relatives in order that the 
beginning of a new series or the termination of an old series 
might not affect the magnitude of the index number. This 
method expresses each measure as a per cent of a measure for 

27 



average was taken of the figures from the twenty 
counties for each year. Because of the constant use 
of the same counties any change which appeared in 
the series from year to year was due, not to a change 
in the number or kind of quotations, but almost cer- 
tainly to some real change in the level of teachers' 
salaries. 

This, in fact, is the fundamental characteristic 
of the index number. In the situations where a com- 
plete periodical census is not possible the index num- 
ber gives a measure of changes from period to period 
by selecting quotations representative of large groups 
and drawing its quotations each year from the same 
sources. The method has been recognized in statisti- 
cal usage for more than 150 years. It has more re- 
cently become familiar to the public through the 

some other year in the series. These per cents are then aver- 
aged to give an index in terms of a percentage increase or de- 
crease over the year taken as a point of departure. In this 
instance, the percentage was again reconverted into an average 
weekly wage. Only in a few cases have relatives been used in 
the compilation of the index numbers in this study. The 
relative is regularly used in computing index numbers where 
the quantities to be measured are of different orders of mag- 
nitude and have, therefore, to be reduced to a common de- 
nominator. Each is then expressed as a per cent of the figure 
for some convenient year taken as a base. In the case of 
teachers' salaries each of the indexes used in this study is made 
up of quotations of the same general magnitude. Hence it 
was not necessary to use relatives. This is a distinct advan- 
tage as the usefulness of the relative is limited by the fact that 
it can only be interpreted in terms of the year taken as a point 
of origin. Hence index numbers taken from different points 
of origin cannot be compared without converting them to the 
same base. Furthermore, the method of relatives may give 
undue weight to increases in the smaller quotations of a group 
of measures. 

28 



publication of index numbers for the price of food by 
the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, and in 
financial circles through the use of index numbers to 
show the rise and fall of stock prices. 1 

The Aldrich Report 
The index number has also been widely used to meas- 
ure the trend of wages. A notable example of this use 
is the special report of the Committee on Finance of 
the Senate, On Wholesale Prices, on Wages, and on 
Transportation, published in 1893. The report is gen- 
erally known as the " Aldrich Report" since Senator 
Nelson W. Aldrich was chairman of the sub-committee 
charged with the study. The statistician directing 
the investigation, Dr. Roland P. Falkner, used the 
index number as a method for determining the trend 
of prices and wages in a great many kinds of indus- 
tries and occupations for the years from 1840 to 1891. 
Dr. Falkner made, in this report, the first attempt to 
construct an index number for teachers' salaries. He 
secured from Dr. W. T. Harris, at that time United 
States Commissioner of Education, quotations for 
teachers' salaries from the cities of St. Louis, Boston, 
Cincinnati, and Baltimore, and from the rural coun- 
ties of Barnstable and Franklin, Massachusetts. By 
converting these figures into relative percentages of 
the amounts for the year 1860 he constructed index 

1 The fullest and most authoritative account of index num- 
bers is a treatise prepared by Dr. Wesley C. Mitchell, The 
Making and Using of Index Numbers, published in Bulletin 
number 173 of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, 
July 1915. 

29 



numbers covering a period of 52 years. In spite of the 
inadequacy of the data 1 at Dr. Falkner's command 
the results show in their general trend a close simi- 
larity to the figures for the earlier years of the in- 
dexes presented in this report. It is believed that Dr. 
Falkner's work represents the only attempt which 
had been made up to this time to apply the technique 
of the index number to determining the trend of 
teachers' salaries. 

Four Index Numbers for Teachers' Salaries 
In the endeavor to make the index numbers presented 
in this study adequate measures of salary trends an 
exhaustive search was made of state school reports 
which have been published in the past 85 years, and 
to a somewhat more limited extent of city reports as 
well. 2 From these reports it has been possible to se- 

1 The value of Dr. Falkner's findings is limited, in the first 
place, by the number of quotations. Four cities and two rural 
counties are not a sufficiently large sampling to give wholly 
typical figures. With so few figures the curve is unduly in- 
fluenced by what may be chance variations in a single quota- 
tion. In the second place, salary schedules rather than actual 
salaries paid were used for the cities, and schedules, as Dr. 
Falkner recognized, are subject to so many varying conditions 
as to amounts of training or experience required for a given 
rating that they are an uncertain basis for computing trends. 
In the third place, the figures for Barnstable and Franklin 
counties for the early and later years are not on a comparable 
basis since, in the early period, they are exclusive of board and 
later inclusive of board. As the early Massachusetts reports 
give both figures the error is one of incorrect compilation for 
which Dr. Falkner was not responsible. 

2 The writer has had access to the exceptionally complete 
collection of these reports in the library of Teachers' College, 
Columbia University. 

30 



cure the figures for the construction of four index num- 
bers of teachers' salaries, each one of them derived 
from as many as 20 quotations during the major part 
of the 80 year period through which the index numbers 
are carried. The index numbers are shown in Table 2. 
The four columns show for each year from 1841 to 
1920 1 the average weekly salaries of women teachers 
in rural and city schools, and of men teachers in rural 
and city schools. While the averages include salaries 
of principals and supervisors as well as high and 
elementary school teachers, the levels of the index 
numbers are mainly determined by the larger numbers 
of elementary school teachers. The counties from 
which figures were secured for the index number for 
women teachers in rural schools have been enumerated 
on page 27. Figures from the same counties were used 
for the salaries of men teachers. For both men and 
women city teachers figures were secured from the 
following cities: Boston, Springfield, and Worcester, 
Massachusetts; Hartford, New Haven, and Stam- 
ford, Connecticut; Detroit and Grand Rapids, Mich- 
igan; Altoona, Harrisburg, and Reading, Pennsyl- 
vania; St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri; Beloit, 
Milwaukee, and LaCrosse, Wisconsin; Cincinnati, 
Cleveland, and Columbus, Ohio; Baltimore, Mary- 
land; and Manchester, New Hampshire. For women 
teachers figures from Concord, New Hampshire were 
also used. Quotations for the most recent years were 

1 The accepted practice of designating the figures for the 
school year by the year of its termination has been followed. 
For example the figures quoted in the table for 1841 are for 
the school year 1840-41. 

31 



supplied through the courtesy of the school officers 
of the different states and cities concerned. For the 
year 1920 these were in some degree in the nature of 
estimates. 



TABLE 2.- 



-AVERAGE WEEKLY SALARIES OF TEACHERS. 
1841 TO 1920 





Rural 


City 


Year 










Men 


Women 


Men 


Women 


1841 


$4.15 


$2.51 


$11.93 


$4.44 


1842 


4.07 


2.43 


11.97 


4.49 


1843 


3.99 


2.45 


12.04 


4.36 


1844 


3.87 


2.48 


12.21 


4.27 


1845 


3.87 


2.51 


11.88 


4.09 


1846 


4.03 


2.53 


11.53 


4.18 


1847 


4.09 


2.61 


11.81 


4.27 


1848 


4.22 


2.69 


12.33 


4.40 


1849 


4.23 


2.72 


13.11 


4.54 


1850 


4.25 


2.89 


13.37 


4.71 


1851 


4.43 


2.95 


14.10 


4.87 


1852 


4.53 


2.96 


14.55 


4.94 


1853 


4.73 


3.13 


15.55 


5.23 


1854 


5.12 


3.28 


15.75 


5.42 


1855 


5.77 


3.65 


16.80 


5.79 


1856 


6.07 


3.85 


16.76 


6.10 


1857 


6.48 


4.03 


17.61 


6.59 


1858 


6.64 


4.19 


18.61 


6.93 


1859 


6.42 


4.27 


18.30 


7.16 


1860 


6.28 


4.12 


18.56 


6.99 


1861 


6.30 


4.05 


18.07 


6.91 


1862 


6.00 


3.82 


17.81 


6.80 


1863 


6.31 


4.01 


18.19 


6.95 


1864 


7.86 


4.92 


20.78 


7.67 


1865 


9.09 


5.99 


23.15 


8.57 


1866 


9.38 


6.45 


26.26 


9.51 


1867 


10.04 


6.54 


29.76 


10.40 


1868 


10.40 


7.16 


31.59 


10.81 


1869 


10.76 


7.37 


32.62 


11.07 


1870 


10.88 


7.53 


35.42 


11.88 


1871 


11.11 


7.66 


35.85 


11.43 


1872 


11.09 


7.73 


34.81 


11.79 


1873 


11.61 


7.84 


35.65 


12.34 


1874 


11.80 


8.00 


36.14 


12.46 


1875 


11.46 


8.00 


36.63 


12.69 


1876 


11.03 


7.96 


35.50 


12.74 


1877 


10.89 


7.80 


34.31 


12.78 


1878 


10.54 


7.80 


32.39 


12.65 


1879 


10.18 


7.54 


30.22 


12.53 


1880 


9.73 


7.46 


31.36 


12.20 



32 



TABLE 2. — {Continued) 





Rural 


City 


Year 




















Men 


Women 


Men 


Women 


1881 


$9.98 


$7.63 


$31.85 


$12.29 


1882 


10.23 


7.88 


31.94 


12.21 


1883 


10.60 


8.16 


32.11 


12.56 


1884 


10.96 


8.16 


32.53 


12.88 


1885 


10.95 


8.23 


33.15 


13.24 


1886 


11.06 


8.26 


32.35 


13.09 


1887 


10.83 


8.39 


32.40 


12.95 


1888 


11.08 


8.36 


32.38 


12.79 


1889 


11.25 


8.40 


32.28 


12.91 


1890 


11.30 


8.55 


32.62 


13.16 


1891 


11.21 


8.51 


32.62 


13.33 


1892 


11.76 


8.78 


33.62 


13.39 


1893 


12.10 


8.99 


33.26 


13.43 


1894 


11.89 


8.99 


33.01 


13.34 


1895 


11.70 


8.91 


31.63 


13.40 


1896 


11.86 


8.81 


31.99 


13.50 


1897 


11.79 


8.86 


31.51 


13.88 


1898 


12.05 


8.83 


31.67 


13.65 


1899 ' 


12.04 


8.93 


31.89 


13.96 


1900 


12.13 


8.93 


31.54 


13.88 


1901 


13.19 


9.05 


32.08 


13.95 


1902 


13.34 


9.31 


32.87 


14.20 


1903 


13.06 


9.52 


33.28 


14.53 


1904 


13.88 


9.91 


32.97 


14.66 


1905 


14.39 


10.15 


33.79 


14.86 


1906 


14.84 


10.61 


33.24 


15.20 


1907 


15.09 


10.71 


34.16 


15.95 


1908 


15.53 


11.05 


35.51 


16.20 


1909 


16.31 


11.64 


35.83 


16.88 


1910 


17.11 


12.15 


36.42 


17.38 


1911 


17.44 


12.33 


36.42 


17.86 


1912 


17.22 


12.85 


36.06 


18.30 


1913 


17.75 


13.09 


35.33 


18.84 


1914 


18.45 


13.37 


34.96 


20.51 


1915 


18.61 


13.63 


37.15 


21.06 


1916 


18.27 


13.90 


37.88 


21.82 


1917 


19.03 


14.07 


36.78 


22.34 


1918 


20.75 


14.35 


40.06 


23.90 


1919 


23.66 


15.84 


48.62 


28.57 


1920 


26.75 


17.68 


60.61 


35.61 



The salary received for each week the teacher ac- 
tually taught rather than the annual salary has been 
used for a number of reasons. In the first place, the 
3 33 



records in the old state reports were in terms of aver- 
age monthly wages. In many cases the facts were not 
available on the basis of which to convert the figures 
into annual salaries. 

In the second place, the wage received for the 
period actually worked is a fairer measure in the 
early years than the annual salary because, with a 
very short school year, almost every teacher engaged 
in some other occupation as well. This may still be 
said of many country teachers. 

In the third place, the weekly wage offers a better 
basis of comparison with the pay of other workers. 
In the occupations for which wage figures are avail- 
able it is practically impossible to compute annual 
wages because of the widely varying number of weeks 
worked from year to year, and the lack of recorded 
information about such employment. The fact that, 
in the long run, there is no great disparity between 
the number of weeks a year a school teacher works 
and the number a skilled artisan or laborer is em- 
ployed will be discussed in a later chapter. 

For one possible element of error in the early 
figures it has been necessary to make careful allow- 
ance. In the early days, and in some rural counties 
until comparatively recent times, it was customary 
to board the teacher around. Part of his or her com- 
pensation consisted of the board received. In many 
of the state reports salary figures were reported in- 
cluding the value of board received; in others the 
value of board was given separately; in nearly all it 
was possible to find some indication of what correc- 

34 



tion should be made. It is believed that the index 
numbers as they stand make proper allowance for 
compensation received in this form by teachers. 

Trends of the Four Index Numbers 
In order to bring out the similarities of, and differ- 
ences between the four different index numbers of 
teachers' salaries, the figures in Table 2 are made the 
basis of Diagrams 6 and 7. Diagram 6 repeats the 
curve of Diagram 5, and shows beside it the course 
of the salaries of rural men teachers. Diagram 7 
shows the salaries of city men and women teachers. 
On each of the curves the trend or regression line is 
drawn to show the general movement of the index 
number over a period of 80 years. 

The diagrams show at once the general similarity 
between the movements of the salaries of different 
types of teachers. All have a steady trend upward. 
All made large gains just after the Civil War followed 
by a considerable levelling off. All made appreciable 
gains since 1900 and sharp advances in the last two 
or three years. 1 

A careful inspection of what occured in all of the 
salary curves at the time of the Civil War is interest- 
ing because of its analogy with conditions today. 

1 In the general similarity of movement of the four curves 
we have excellent substantiating evidence of the reliability of 
the methods employed in the construction of the indexes. That 
figures taken from such varied sources should show so close 
agreement is a demonstration that we are getting a true index 
of salary trends. Similar confirmation is found in the smooth- 
ness of the curves. Chance variations have evidently been 
nullified in large measure. 

35 



$60 



60 



40 



30 



20 



10 

























































































Kea 


_ •■^— \^" 


^*- 
*» 


*^/ 


^ 1 


** ^. 


zz/~* 


CJ/^ 


•" Woa 


9 P -* 









1840 I860 i860 1870 1880 1890 



1900 



1910 1920 



Diagram 6. — Weekly salaries of men and women teachers in 
rural schools. 1841 to 1920 



Aft 
















4 


60 
40 
































* 1 


50 










Won 


• 


* 
* 
s 

* i 


/ 


20 
10 




,' 


\ s 
• 7 


* 
*• 

* 
* 
* 


• 






/"' 


• 

s 

s 


"J* 




Woae 


*^<s 




,,-' 


«» j 




rf» 


p *^s 















1340 1850 I860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 

Diagram 7. — Weekly salaries of men and women teachers in 
city schools. 1841 to 1920 



37 



Teachers' salaries did not begin to rise until the war 
had been in progress two years. Then they rose but 
slowly. The more important changes came after the 
war was over, and the peak was not reached until 
practically 10 years after the close of hostilities. The 
salary curves during the years 1917 and 1918 re- 
peated this failure to show rapid increases during the 
period of hostilities. The very rapid increases of 1919 
and 1920 are again showing a tendency to repeat pre- 
vious experience. 

There are certain outstanding differences between 
the different curves. Salaries of men in cities are far 
higher than other salaries. This is to be expected be- 
cause in cities a considerable proportion of the men 
are teaching in high school, while a comparatively 
small per cent of the total women teachers are in high 
schools. The second highest figures are those for 
women teachers in cities, although male teachers in 
country schools were paid very similar salaries. 
Women teachers in rural schools come last. In 
general, men receive considerably higher salaries 
than women, and city teachers higher than country 
teachers. 

It is worthy of note that after the rise in salaries 
following the Civil War period the curves for both 
kinds of men teachers show a distinct and consider- 
able downward reaction, while the women experience 
very slight recession from the high point reached in 
1875. A natural explanation would appear to be that 
men's salaries in the teaching profession were at that 
time in closer competition with salaries in the busi- 

38 



ness world than were women's. Hence when the 
business depression of the second half of the decade 
beginning in 1870 drove down the general level of 
wages the salaries of men teachers went lower as well. 
There is another striking difference between men's 
and women's salaries in the years from 1910 to 1917. 



$45 
40 
35 

30 
25 
20 
15 
10 
5 



1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 

Diagram 8. — Trends of weekly salaries of men and women 
teachers in rural and city schools. 1841 to 1920 

















/ 


























<?> 


^y 
















































+2$ 






X 








ogJ; 


«•»£ 


>^ 000 00*"* 










*^ 1 


i*£ii- 























During these seven years the salaries of women 
teachers show a rapid and steady increase. The curves 
for the salaries of men teachers, on the other hand, are 
broken by two depressions and make little advance. 
Diagram 8 is made by plotting on one background 
the trend lines from the four diagrams just presented. 

39 



This is"done in order to make clear some of the char- 
acteristic differences in the general movement of the 
four curves. 

The salaries of city men teachers started at a level 
nearly five times as high as any of the other groups. 
Their gains were sufficient to keep them well in the 
lead. The salaries of city women teachers started 
lower than those of men in rural schools, but passed the 
men in the course of a very few years and continued 
thereafter to gain more rapidly. The trend for rural 
women teachers is considerably below all the others. 

While this diagram shows the actual trends of the 
salaries, it is deceptive in one respect. It gives the 
impression that city men teachers made the greatest 
proportional increase in the wage received and that 
women in rural schools made the least. A careful 
study of the diagram will show that exactly the re- 
verse is the case. The final salary of the men is only 
about three times their initial salary, while the gen- 
eral level of the salaries of country women teachers 
at the close of the 80 years is about eight times the 
early figure. 1 

Percentage Increases 1841 to 1920 
Diagram 9 is inserted to make clear the relative in- 
creases in the trend of the salaries of the four kinds 

1 The reader should be cautioned at this point to observe 
that the lines in Diagram 10 do not indicate, at the end points 
especially, the salaries actually received, but the salaries that 
would have been received if the gains made had been distrib- 
uted evenly over the entire period of 80 years. A re-examina- 
tion of Diagrams 6 and 7, will make this clear. 

40 



of teachers. Here the trend or regression figures are 
plotted, not at their face values, but as per cents 
taking the trend figure for the year 1841 as 100 per 
cent. On this basis it is evident that the salaries of 



Per 

oont 



800 
700 
































> 


6UO 
600 
400 
300 


























7Qr 


^ 














f^ 








200 
100 










g£> 


2*>" 







































1840 



I860 



1870 



1900 



1930 



Diagram 9. — Trends of teachers' salaries in per cents of the 
figures for 1841 



women country teachers have had the highest per- 
centage increase, rising to nearly 800 per cent of the 
1841 figure. Women city teachers in second position 
are closely followed by men rural teachers. Men city 
teachers, on the other hand, have had salary in- 

41 



creases relatively less than half as great as men 
teachers in rural schools and less than one-third as 
great as women teachers in cities. In general, women's 
salaries have shown a larger relative increase than 
have those of men, and country teachers larger than 
city. 

These facts may be looked upon as, in the main, 
evidences of wholesome tendencies in American edu- 
cation. The position of the woman teacher in 1840 
was far from desirable. She was in the main a sub- 
ordinate assistant in schools wholly controlled by 
men. Her wage was not sufficient to make her self- 
supporting and certainly not adequate to warrant 
any extended training. A very large percentage of 
increase was essential to placing women teachers on 
anything like a professional plane. The same reason- 
ing applies to the increases of both sexes in the rural 
schools. In these cases, the percentage of increase is 
fully as much a reflection of the very meagre wage 
received at the beginning of the period as of the more 
favorable status at its close. 

The small relative increase in the case of men 
teachers in cities is deserving, however, of careful con- 
sideration. For a period of 40 years after 1875 the 
salaries of men teachers appear to have remained on 
almost a dead level. For these years up to 1915 the 
level was actually lower than in 1874 and 1875. In a 
period of rising wages the salaries of these men 
teachers remained on the old levels. What the small 
percentage of increase means in terms of securing and 
retaining in education men who will be leaders will be 

42 



more evident in later comparisons of teachers' sal- 
aries with the cost of living and with the salaries of 
other workers. It is significant in this connection 
that the percentage of men teachers in the schools of 
the country has fallen from 43 per cent in 1880 to 16 
per cent in 1918. 

Trends in the Past Five Years 
The movements of salaries in the past five years are 
so distinctive as to warrant a separate accounting. 
Table 3 presents the figures of the four salary in- 
dexes from 1916 to 1920 as percentages of the figures 
for the year 1915. Thus in 1916 the salaries of women 
teachers in cities were 104 per cent as great as in 
1915, and in 1920 they were 169 per cent as great. 

TABLE 3.— TEACHERS' SALARIES FROM 1915 TO 1920, IN PER 
CENTS OF FIGURES FOR 1915 





Rural 


City 




Year 










All 










teachers 




Men 


Women 


Men 


Women 




1915 


100 


100 


100 


100 


100 


1916 


98 


102 


102 


104 


102 


1917 


103 


103 


98 


106 


103.8 


1918 


111 


105 


108 


114 


108.8 


1919 


127 


116 


131 


135 


123.9 


1920 


144 


130 


163 


169 


144.9 



City women teachers show the largest percentage 
gain; city men come next, rural men next, and rural 
women last, with an increase of only 30 per cent over 
the 1915 salaries. In general city teachers have se- 
cured increases to meet new conditions more rapidly 
than have rural teachers, and men teachers in the 
country more rapidly than women rural teachers. 

43 



The final column of Table 3 gives the relative fig- 
ures for teachers in general during these years. The 
figures are an average of the data of the four other 
columns weighted according to the proportions of the 
whole teaching force in each of the four groups. The 
computations are based on each 100 teachers con- 
sisting of 30 city women teachers, three city men 
teachers, 51 rural women teachers, and 16 rural men 
teachers. 

Taken as a whole teachers' salaries have increased 
less than 50 per cent since 1915. Four-fifths of this 
increase has been in the past two years and nearly 
half of it within the current year. The importance of 
these increases can only be understood as we compare 
them with the increase in the cost of living and with 
the general movement of wages. 

Summary 

1. The trend of salaries is best obtained by the 
method of the index number. 

2. The index number is computed by securing 
average salary figures from a selected and unchang- 
ing list of communities over a long period of years, 
and averaging the figures from these same communi- 
ties for each year. 

3. The first attempt to secure an index number for 
teachers' salaries was made by Dr. Roland P. Falkner 
for the 52 years from 1840 to 1891. 

4. In the present study four index numbers have 
been computed for a period of 80 years, 1841 to 1920, 

44 



for the salaries of men and of women teachers in rural 
and in city schools. 

5. Salaries of the four types of teachers show in 
general very similar trends. 

6. In similar communities men have been paid 
considerably more than women teachers. 

7. City teachers have been paid more than coun- 
try teachers regardless of sex. 

8. The salaries of women teachers have been gain- 
ing on those of men teachers and those of country- 
teachers on those of city teachers. 

9. Women country teachers have had the largest 
percentage increase in salary, and city men teachers 
the smallest. 

10. In the past five years teachers' salaries have in- 
creased 45 per cent. City teachers show the largest 
gains. 



45 



CHAPTER III 

TEACHERS' SALARIES AND THE COST OF 
LIVING 

The two dollars and fifty cents which the young 
woman teaching in a rural school received for a 
week's work in 1841 was a very different sum of 
money from that same amount in recent years. Its 
value was different and this difference was deter- 
mined by two considerations. In the first place, its 
purchasing power was different. It would buy more 
milk, and beef, and potatoes and other farm pro- 
ducts, but it would actually buy less of many of those 
articles in the manufacture of which machine work 
has now replaced laborious hand processes. 

Price Changes 1841 to 1919 
This difference in purchasing power of the weekly 
wage then and now is illustrated in Table 4 which 
gives prices of several typical important items of 
family expenditure in 1841, 1900, and 1919. Articles 
have been selected for which there is a standard unit 
which has not changed much during the 80 years. 
The figures represent as nearly as possible the cost of 
the same purchase in three different years. They 
come from a number of sources: reports of the 
United States Bureau of Labor Statistics and the 

46 



Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor; the 
Aldrich Report of the Senate; records of Army and 
Navy purchases, and other miscellaneous records and 
reports. Each figure is based on a considerable 
number of quotations. 

TABLE 4.— COSTS IN CENTS OF CERTAIN NECESSITIES 



Article 


Amount 


1841 


1900 


1919 


Flour 


lib. 


4 


2.5 


7 


Fresh beef 


lib. 


9 


13 


39 


Milk 


1 qt. 


5 


7 


15.5 


Sugar 


lib. 


8.5 


6 


11 


Potatoes 


1 pk. 


17 


21 


57 


Calico 


1yd. 


18 


6 


20 


Blankets 


5 1b. 


275 


300 


975 


Shoes 


1 pr. 


125 


200 


750 


Illuminating oil 


lgal. 


115 


18 


35 



Of five kinds of foods listed, three went up be- 
tween 1841 and 1900, while two went down, flour and 
sugar. Both of these are products of manufacture. 
Calico was lower in 1900. Shoes and blankets were 
a little higher. Oil for illumination shows the greatest 
difference in price. The 1919 prices are all higher than 
the 1900 prices. These figures make evident the need 
for a careful appraisal of the purchasing power of the 
teacher's salary. We need a cost of living index num- 
ber to compare with salary index numbers. 

Changes in Standards of Living 
But there is another consideration affecting the 
changing value of the teacher's pay besides its abso- 
lute purchasing power, and that is its power to put 
the teacher on an equal social footing with other 

47 



people. Salary standards and the standard of living 
which they determine, as well as the cost of living, 
must be considered. It was no great hardship to own 
only one silk dress in a lifetime when other people did 
the same. If wearing patched clothing was the cus- 
tom, a wage that made patching necessary was no 
cause for complaint. When oranges appeared only on 
tables of the wealthy one could make no case for an 
increase in the teacher's salary on the ground that 
she could not afford to purchase them. But if people 
generally wear silk dresses, despise patching, and eat 
oranges, the teacher should be able to do so as well. 
The standard of living of the community is fully as 
important as the actual cost of living in determining 
the adequacy of any wage. The standard of living is 
determined by the salaries other people receive. 
Although there were important changes in the cost 
of necessities in the past 80 years, there were even 
more important fluctuations in the general levels of 
wages. 

Table 5 gives illustrative cases of the changes in 
salary levels in the past 80 years. Salaries of the 
workers here represented practically doubled be- 
tween 1841 and 1900, and doubled again between 
1900 and 1919. Increases such as these changed the 
standard of living over the period of 80 years. With 
higher wages better houses, better food, better cloth- 
ing, more education and recreation are possible; new 
levels become fixed. A salary to be adequate must 
keep pace with the advancing standards of living as 
well as with the cost of the means of subsistence. 

48 



TABLE 5.— WEEKLY WAGES OF LABORERS, ARTISANS, AND 
TEACHERS^ 


Worker 


1841 


1900 


1919 


Laborers 

Carpenters 

Machinists 

Printers 

Women city teachers 


$4.86 
8.16 
8.52 
8.58 
4.44 


$8.94 
16.10 
15.38 
16.25 

13.88 


$23.02 
33.57 
34.64 

28.45 
28.57 



1 The figures are taken from series of index numbers which will be pre- 
sented in a later chapter. 

It will be the purpose of this chapter to compare 
teachers' salaries for 80 years with the changing cost 
of the necessities of life. The succeeding chapter will 
deal with the larger problem, the changing standards 
of living as they are determined by the wages of 
other workers. To this end index numbers of the 
trends of wages of laborers and artisans will be com- 
pared with the four index numbers of teachers' 
salaries. 

As a companion study to this one the Department 
of Statistics of the Russell Sage Foundation, under 
the direction of Dr. Leonard P. Ayres and Dr. Ralph 
G. Hurlin, has been carrying forward an investiga- 
tion of the fluctuations in the cost of living and the 
wages of laborers and artisans for 100 years, from 
1820 to 1920. Index numbers have been computed 
for living costs and wages for this period. Since the 
detailed findings will be published in a separate vol- 
ume, the final index figures are used in this report 
with only a brief account of their derivation and 
meaning. 



49 



A Cost of Living Index Number 
A careful search of the literature on the subject failed 
to discover any adequate index of the cost of living 
for a long period of time. The Department of Labor 
and the Industrial Conference Board have published 
figures, but only covering the past few years. For a 
longer term the index number commonly used has 
been that of wholesale commodity prices. The work 
of a number of investigators has carried this figure 
back to the beginning of the nineteenth century. 
Wholesale prices do not, however, serve the present 
purpose well. Their fluctuations are more rapid and 
larger than those of the retail prices which the con- 
sumer pays. This may be demonstrated by figures for 
the Civil War period and the recent rise in prices. The 
first two columns of Table 6 show the rise of whole- 
sale commodity prices compared with retail prices of 
food during the Civil War, and the last two columns 
show similar data for the past six years. The figures 



TABLE 6.— INDEX NUMBERS FOR WHOLESALE COMMODITY 
PRICES AND RETAIL FOOD PRICES— TWO WARS' 





Wholesale 


Retail 


Year 


Wholesale 


Retail 


Year 


Commodity 


Food 


Commodity 


Food 


1861 


100 


100 


1914 


100 


100 


1862 


118 


108 


1915 


101 


99 


1863 


163 


131 


1916 


124 


111 


1864 


230 


171 


1917 


176 


144 


1865 


212 


177 


1918 


196 


167 


1866 


188 


176 


1919 


212 


184 



1 The numbers for wholesale commodity prices are based on the index 
numbers of wholesale prices in Bulletin 181, 1915, p. 266, and Monthly 
Labor Review, February 1920, p. 89, United States Bureau of Labor Statis- 
tics. For retail food prices the numbers are based on an index to be pre- 
sented later in this chapter. 

50 



are shown as per cents of the first year. Wholesale 
prices in both periods rose faster and further than 
retail prices and could not be taken as representing 
retail fluctuations. In the Civil War period whole- 
sale prices rose to 230 per cent of the early level; re- 
tail prices only to 177 per cent. By 1919, in the 
recent war period, wholesale prices reached a level 
212 per cent of the 1914 figure with retail prices at 
only 184 per cent. 

The differences between these wholesale commod- 
ity and retail food price quotations are probably 
accounted for in two ways. In the first place, there 
is a distinct lag between the movement of wholesale 
and retail prices for the same article, and not only 
a lag but often a real difference in levels reached. In 
the second place, wholesale price index numbers 
which have been computed include a large number of 
articles, most of which affect the cost of living slowly 
and indirectly. These disadvantages made it essen- 
tial to look further for a cost of living index. 

Food as a Basis 
The German economist Engel formulated in 1857 an 
economic doctrine which has become known as 
EngePs law. 1 One of the principles of this law was 
that the proportion of family expenditures devoted 
to subsistence was in inverse relation to the size of the 
income. Engel found that in families where the earn- 

1 Portions of EngeFs original essay were reprinted in the 
Sixth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Sta- 
tistics of Labor, Boston, 1875, p. 437. 

51 



ings were barely sufficient to supply immediate needs 
the cost of food tended to be more than one-half of all 
expenditures. The studies of family expenditures 
which have been made in this country by the Massa- 
chusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, and later by 
the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, tend 
to substantiate EngePs findings. Among the better 
paid wage earners, particularly in recent years, food 
expenditure has fallen to 40 or even 35 per cent of 
the total budget, but among the less well paid the 
proportion has often run higher than 50 per cent. 
If an average be taken for a number of extensive 
studies which have been made in the past 75 
years, the typical family spent 46 per cent of its 
income for food. Rent was second with 16 per cent, 
and clothing third with 14 per cent. Other items 
were scattered. 

On the basis of these and similar facts it was de- 
cided that the best single index of the changes in the 
cost of living would be an index number of the changes 
in the retail price of food. Moreover the figures were 
available for constructing such an index number. 
It was possible to select 10 staple articles of food 
which constituted the bulk of all food purchases in 
the average wage earner's family, and to trace their 
prices back to the year 1820. From a number of 
different sources sufficient quotations were secured 
for each year to give a representative figure. The 
articles used were the following: 

Three meats : beef, pork, poultry 
Three dairy products: butter, eggs, milk 
52 



Three manufactured foods: flour, sugar, lard 
One vegetable : potatoes 

When the quotations had been secured for each 
year for the 10 articles they were combined in a gen- 
eral average, weighting each one in accordance with 
its importance in the typical family budget. The 
resulting averages gave the trend of the prices of these 
articles over the period of 100 years. In order to make 
the figures easily comparable with wages the average 
was multiplied by a factor which would bring the 
figure for the year 1901 to the total weekly budget 
of a typical wage earner's family consisting of a man 
and wife and two small children. Thus the index 
number of the cost of food was turned into an index 
number of the cost of living. 

The principal assumption necessary in making this 
change was that the other less important items of the 
family budget have fluctuated in something the same 
way as the price of food. Considerable evidence to 
support this assumption has been found in the trends 
which it has been possible to construct for the retail 
price of clothing, the price of rent, and of fuel. These 
trends show a remarkable resemblance to the food 
curve. 

The final figures for the index number are given in 
Table 7. They represent the weekly cost for a small 
family of food, clothing, shelter, and incidentals, 
assuming that they lived on about the same scale as a 
typical working-man's family in 1901. They measure 
the cost of the same purchases over the period of 80 
years, 

53 



TABLE 7.— COST OF LIVING PER WEEK FROM 1841 TO 1920 FOR 

A SMALL FAMILY USING THE SAME AMOUNTS OF THE SAME 

COMMODITIES OVER THE ENTIRE PERIOD 



Year 


Cost per week 


Year 


Cost per week 


1841 


$7.00 


1881 


$9.04 


1842 


6.70 


1882 


9.33 


1843 


6.71 


1883 


8.78 


1844 


6.68 


1884 


8.31 


1845 


7.05 


1885 


8.09 


1846 


7.39 


1886 


8.17 


1847 


7.94 


1887 


8.19 


1848 


7.90 


1888 


8.45 


1849 


7.65 


1889 


8.47 


1850 


7.31 


1890 


8.47 


1851 


6.63 


1891 


8.62 


1852 


6.72 


1892 


8.45 


1853 


6.75 


1893 


8.66 


1854 


7.62 


1894 


8.18 


1855 


8.02 


1895 


8.04 


1856 


8.00 


1896 


7.87 


1857 


8.43 


1897 


8.01 


1858 


7.66 


1898 


8.25 


1859 


7.97 


1899 


8.28 


1860 


7.89 


1900 


8.45 


1861 


7.66 


1901 


8.84 


1862 


8.26 


1902 


9.36 


1863 


10.02 


1903 


9.37 


1864 


13.10 


1904 


9.53 


1865 


13.54 


1905 


9.52 


1866 


13.45 


1906 


9.80 


1867 


12.96 


1907 


10.27 


1868 


13.05 


1908 


10.57 


1869 


12.25 


1909 


11.09 


1870 


11.58 


1910 


11.62 


1871 


10.88 


1911 


11.46 


1872 


10.81 


1912 


12.22 


1873 


10.61 


1913 


12.52 


1874 


10.40 


1914 


12.83 


1875 


10.16 


1915 


12.66 


1876 


9.77 


1916 


14.20 


1877 


9.66 


1917 


18.50 


1878 


8.72 


1918 


21.42 


1879 


8.61 


1919 


23.63 


1880 


8.73 


1920 


25.50 



The Trend of the Index Number 
The figures of Table 7 are shown graphically in 
Diagram 10. The trend line is drawn through the 

54 



diagram to fit the general movement of the curve as 
in previous diagrams, except for the fact that in this 
case the trend line is computed for 75 years only. 
The reason for this change is that a trend line drawn 
for the entire 80 years would be so affected by the 
movement of the past few years that it would not 
accurately represent the more general tendency. The 



$30 



20 



10 

















1 














*/- 


J 



















1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 

Diagram 10. — Cost of living per week from 1841 to 1920 for 
a small family using the same amounts of the same commodi- 
ties over the entire period 



rise since 1915 has been so distinctive that it needs 
separate treatment. In fact we shall deal with the 
diagram as two trends, one from 1841 through 1915, 
and the other for the past five years. 

For the 75 year stretch the curve shows little up- 
ward tendency. The weekly figure for 1900 is less than 

55 



two dollars higher than that for 1841. After the sharp 
rise at the time of the Civil War the curve falls off 
again slowly until it nearly reaches its pre-war level. 
The line which is computed for the general trend 
shows a rise for the entire period of a little less than 
three and one-half cents a year. 

The curve itself in its various fluctuations reflects 
the economic history of the period which it covers. 
The rise in the latter forties followed new tariff legis- 
lation and the Mexican War, and that in the fifties 
was coincident with the business expansion which 
succeeded the discovery of gold in California. The 
Civil War rise falls off gradually, reaching a low 
point in 1878 with the culmination of the depression 
which followed the war. The effects of other periods 
of depression are evident in the low points reached in 
1885 and 1896. 

Teachers' Salaries and the Cost of Living 
It is now possible to compare, on the same diagram, 
the trend in the cost of living and the trend of 
teachers' salaries. This is done for the 75 year period 
from 1841 to 1915 in Diagram 11, which compares the 
trend lines for teachers' salaries and the cost of living 
in terms of per cents, taking the initial figure in 1841 
as 100 per cent in each case. The trend of the cost of 
living shows an increase of only 31 per cent. The 
purchasing power of the dollar was nearly the same 
at the latter part of the period as near the beginning. 
On the other hand, teachers' salaries have gone up 
sharply. As far as the absolute purchasing power of 

56 



his wage was concerned the position of the teacher 
was steadily improving. 

Per cent 
600 



500 



400 



300 



200 



100 















^ 










» v 





1 ^> 


> 












^ 














££J~ 


%$2*~~ 












c 


).t o 


\ ii*J 


o* , 





















1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 

Diagram 11. — Trends of teachers' salaries compared with the 
trend of the cost of living, in per cents of the figures for 1841 



The Situation Reversed, 1915 to 1920 
During the past five years the cost of living has in- 
creased 100 per cent while teachers' salaries have 
risen 45 per cent. Not only has the cost of living 
risen further but it has risen faster. It made a gain 
of nearly 50 per cent before teachers' salaries began 
to rise. The character of the two curves is shown in 
Diagram 12. The figures for the cost of living are 
those of the index number for the past five years com- 
puted as per cents of the level for 1915. 
Those for teachers' salaries are the average per 

57 



cents for the four teachers' indexes. The figures will 
be found in Table 3 on page 44. The cost of living 
made a very considerable increase in 1916 and the 
sharpest of all in 1917 when the United States en- 



Per cent 
225 



200 



175 



150 



125 



100 



75 



50 



25 











-* 










,-"" 






^ 


■^ 






/ 


(" 






^--^ 


/ 


iz&ss^ 















































1915 



1916 



1917 



1918 



1919 



1920 



Diagram 12. — Teachers' salaries and the cost of living each 
year from 1915 to 1920 in per cents of the figures for 1915 

tered the War. The advance has continued although 
there now seem to be some indications that the peak 
has been reached. The increases in teachers' salaries 
were hardly appreciable until 1919 while the sharpest 

58 



rise has occurred in the current year. A perceptible 
gain is now being made on the cost of living. 

Wage and Cost Trends for Women Teachers 
The relationship of salaries to the cost of living over 
the entire period of 80 years will be clearer if we 
follow through the situation of one class of teachers 

$30 



20 



10 





1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 

Diagram 13. — Average weekly salaries of women teachers in 
rural and city schools compared with the cost of living. 1841 
to 1920 

for those years. For this purpose an average salary 
of all women teachers has been computed by combin- 
ing country and city index numbers. 1 This average is 

1 In computing the average the country teacher figure was 
given a weight of two and the city average a weight of one. 
This makes the average a little high in the early years when 
the population was predominantly rural and a little low today 
when the relation of rural to city teachers is about three to 
two. This weighting probably gives a fair average. 

59 

















I 






r> 


^•... * « 


*<>*•* 


• • •* 






<"»•>. 

••«•• 




rVnft 




^\m 


"•*•...•• 


x— " 





plotted in Diagram 13 and, on the same background, 
is placed the curve for the cost of living. The salaries 
of teachers start far below the cost of living curve. 
This means that the woman teacher, if she had any 
dependents, could not afford to purchase the kind of 
food, clothing, and shelter which the curve repre- 
sents. Her wage did not pass the cost of living curve 
until after the Civil War. The change was the result 
of the drop in the cost curve after the war and the 
retention by the teachers of all the gain made during 
the war period. From the point where the two lines 
cross, teachers' salaries make a steady gain until 
nearly 1900. Then the two curves run practically 
parallel until 1916. In 1917 the cost of living curve 
passes the salary curve and stays above it for the 
following years. 1 

The relation of the two series of figures is brought 
out again in Diagram 14. The cost of living index 
number for each year is taken as 100 per cent, and the 
average salary of women teachers is plotted as a per 
cent of the cost of living figure. The per cent the 
teacher's salary figure is of the cost of living figure 
indicates what part of a certain specified amount of 
food, clothing, and shelter a teacher's salary will buy. 
The diagram gives us a measure of the purchasing 
power of the teacher's wage. 

1 It should be remembered in the interpretation of this and 
the following diagram that the cost of living curve is simply 
valuable as showing the relative levels of the cost of the same 
kind of living from year to year. The kind of living it repre- 
sents is that of workingmen's families in 1901. It does not 
represent the cost of living for a school teacher today. 

60 



In 1841 the teacher's weekly salary would buy not 
quite half of a unit of food, clothing, and shelter of 
the type we have taken for a standard cost of living. 
When the teacher purchased her living she had to 
buy an inferior quality to that which the working- 

Per cent 
200 



150 



100 



50 



















Coat 


of 1 


iTiaU 


i 


v / V 












•7 
♦ / 

uy 





























1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 

Diagram 14. — Per cent the average salary of women teachers 
was of the cost of living each year from 1841 to 1920 

man bought in 1901. In 1877 her salary was just 
sufficient to purchase a living of similar quality to the 
workingman's. Then her wage rose until it reached 
its greatest purchasing power in 1896. There followed 
a considerable plateau until 1915 when the cost of 

61 



living rose so fast and salaries so slowly that their 
purchasing power went lower than at any time since 
the year 1872, just after the Civil War. In 1918 and 
1919 the teacher could buy less of the necessities of 
life than at any time in 40 years. The situation is 
improved in 1920 but the same statement may still 
be made truly. The considerable advances in teachers ' 
salaries within a year have thus far brought them 
back only about one-third of the distance that they 
fell. 

There are other features of the diagram deserving 
attention. The experience of this war period is in 
enlarged measure a repetition of what occurred at the 
time of the Civil War. A number of movements in 
the other direction in 1858-59, 1877-78, 1883-86, 
and 1893-96 reflect some type of financial depression. 
A generalization can be made that teachers prosper 
in times of adversity and suffer in times of prosperity. 
The explanation is simple. When times are hard 
prices go down through lack of competition between 
buyers. Wages go down but salaries retain their 
levels. Hence the purchasing power of the salary is 
increased. Prosperous times are periods of high 
prices and high wages, just as at present. Salaries 
remain stable, however, and their purchasing power 
is less. 

Thus we have in the present relation of teachers' 
salaries and the cost of living no new economic prin- 
ciple at work. The seriousness of the situation con- 
sists in the size of the fluctuations which have taken 
place. Through 40 years the teacher has steadily 

62 



been gaining in recognition as a professional worker. 
She has been receiving constantly more and bet- 
ter training. This has been made possible by a con- 
stantly advancing salary. Now in two years all 
of the ground gained has been lost and the teacher 
finds herself in a worse situation financially than 
at any time since the Civil War period. 

There seems good reason, in the experience of the 
past, to believe that adequate adjustment to the 
new price levels will be made. It should be realized, 
however, that only a good beginning has been made 
in effecting that adjustment. The major part of the 
task is still to be carried through. 

Summary 

1. The adequacy of salaries must be judged by 
comparing them with the cost of living and the stand- 
ard of living. 

2. The cost of living is measured by the price of the 
necessities of life and the standard of living by the 
wages received by other workers. 

3. An index number is available based on food 
prices showing changes in the cost of living for 100 
years. 

4. For the 75 years, 1841 to 1915, the trend of the 
cost of living increased only 30 per cent while the 
trend of the salaries of different kinds of teachers in- 
creased from five to 15 times that much. 

5. From 1915 to 1920 the situation was reversed 
and the cost of living increased twice as much as 
teachers' salaries. 

63 



6. As a result of recent price increases the pur- 
chasing power of the teacher's salary is less than at 
any other time since the Civil War period. 

7. Through large increases in 1919 and 1920 
teachers' salaries have begun to overtake the cost of 
living but only a beginning has been made. 



64 



CHAPTER IV 

SALARIES OF TEACHERS AND OF OTHER 
WORKERS 

A convincing statistical study of the relations be- 
tween wages of different kinds of workers and be- 
tween wages and the cost of living was presented by- 
Professor H. L. Moore of Columbia University in 
1911 in a book entitled Laws of Wages. 1 By a 
thorough application of modern scientific statistical 
methods Professor Moore was able to secure proof 
for a number of economic laws which had been up to 
that time almost wholly matters of theory. 

Wages and the Cost of Living 
Among other findings Professor Moore drew the con- 
clusion that there was no direct causal relationship 
between the wages of laborers and the cost of living, 2 

1 Macmillan Company, New York. 

2 The expression which Professor Moore used instead of cost 
of living was means of subsistence. The figures used were, 
however, quite similar in their derivation to the figures used 
in Chapter III of this book as the index numbers of the cost of 
living. The latter term has therefore been used for the con- 
venience of the reader. The figures from the French depart- 
ments are designated coefficients de depense en objets d' ali- 
mentation et de chauffage. They are average figures for the 
price of food and fuel weighted in accordance with the relative 
amounts of the different articles consumed by a number of 
typical families. 

5 65 



but that there was a close relationship between the 
wages received by skilled workers and those received 
by unskilled laborers. The data upon which the 
proof of these conclusions was based were the records 
of the wages of skilled and unskilled labor and the 
cost of the means of subsistence in the 87 depart- 
ments of France for the year 1896. There was a 
general tendency in these departments for the wages 
to be high where the prices of food and fuel were high 
and for wages to be low where prices were low, but 
this tendency was only a general one. The relation- 
ship between prices and wages was not close enough 
to be considered one of cause and effect. On the 
other hand, a much closer relationship existed be- 
tween the wages received by skilled labor and those 
received by unskilled labor. The wages of skilled 
labor were evidently determined in considerable de- 
gree by the wages of unskilled workers. 1 

The data which were presented in Chapter III of 
this book supply evidence for this country looking in 
the same general direction as Professor Moore's con- 
clusions. The salaries of teachers have in a very 
general way fluctuated with the cost of living, but 
there have been many exceptions and there does not 
appear to be any direct causal relationship between 
the two series of figures. 



1 The coefficient of correlation between the money wages of 
unskilled labor and the cost of the means of subsistence was 
.306 and that between the wages of unskilled labor and the 
wages of skilled labor was .775. These coefficients were com- 
puted by the Pearson formula. 

66 



Wage Index Numbers for 80 Years 
Evidence which has been secured as to the relation- 
ship between the wages of different kinds of workers 
is still more convincing in the support which it gives 
to Professor Moore's findings. Index numbers have 
been computed for the weekly wages of unskilled 
laborers and of skilled workmen for a period of 80 
years from 1841 to 1920. These numbers are plotted 
together in Diagram 15. 

The lower line represents the average weekly wages 
received each year by unskilled laborers and the 
upper line the average weekly wages of artisans. 
The straight lines running through the curves are the 
trend or regression lines for 75 years from 1841 to 
1915. The two curves follow courses similar to the 
teachers' salary index numbers which were shown in 
an earlier chapter. From 1841 until the Civil War 
they rise gradually. Towards the latter part of the 
war they turn sharply upward. During the seventies 
they lose a part of the advantage gained reaching a 
low point in 1878 and 1879. During the next two 
decades no advance is made. In 1900, a gradual up- 
ward movement begins, followed by a rapid climb in 
1915. The rise here is so rapid that it is necessary to 
consider the trend from 1915 to 1920 separately from 
the previous trend. It is for that reason that the 
trend lines are only carried to 1915. 

The two curves parallel each other in a remarkable 
way. Almost every rise and fall in one is accom- 
panied by a similar movement in the other. There is 
every evidence of a causal relationship between the 

67 



two. The evidence differs from that presented by 
Professor Moore in that the series of figures repre- 
sent different years rather than different localities, 
but their significance is as great in demonstrating 
the close relationship of different types of wages. 
The parallelism between the two trend lines may be 
compared with the differing trends of salaries and 
the cost of living shown in Chapter III. 1 

Three periods may be distinguished in the re- 
lationship of the two wage curves. From 1841 to 
1900 the curves run almost exactly parallel. The 
artisans' curve is constantly about 70 per cent higher 
than the curve for the wages of unskilled labor. It 
can be said that during those years the special train- 
ing of the artisan was worth just 70 per cent of a 
laborer's wage. It enabled the artisan to earn 170 
per cent as much money as the unskilled laborer. 
From 1900 to 1915 the wages of artisans rose some- 
what more rapidly than those of common labor, an 

1 While the trend lines measure the general tendencies, they 
do not measure the tendencies toward concomitant variation 
between the lines of original data. For the latter purpose 
coefficients of correlation have been computed between the 
wages of unskilled labor and the wages of artisans and the cost 
of living. In these computations the deviations of the meas- 
ures for each year were taken not from a simple average but 
from a ten year moving average. The deviation of each meas- 
ure was found from an average of ten measures including the 
measure itself, the four preceding measures, and the five fol- 
lowing ones. From these deviations the coefficients of corre- 
lation were computed by the Pearson formula. Only the 
figures from 1841 to 1912 were used as the later figures were 
so large as to overshadow earlier differences if they had been 
used. The resulting coefficient between wages of laborers and 
artisans was .89 and that between the wages of laborers and 
the cost of living .56. 

68 



advance probably due to the success of the trade 
union movement among skilled workingmen. From 
1915 to 1920 unskilled labor was at a premium with 
immigration cut down and the need for workers in- 
creased, and laborers' wages rose somewhat more 



>4U 

so 


















20 
















j 






J~*~ 


.~~~~ 


ktK \ 


,»*•-. 






10 










sr~~~ 




L»*° 






















1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 

Diagram 15. — Weekly wages of laborers and artisans. 1841 to 
1920 



rapidly than those of artisans. These differences, 
however, between the movements of the two series 
of wages are minor in light of the larger resem- 
blances. 

The figures upon which Diagram 15 is based are 

69 



given in Table 8. The quotations representing the 
wages of unskilled labor are averages computed from 
records of the pay rolls of individual manufacturing 
establishments, municipalities, building contractors, 
and other miscellaneous concerns. Common labor is 
usually easily distinguishable as a distinct type of 
worker in the records of these firms. The payrolls 
used have been found in a considerable number of 
compilations. The more important were the various 
publications of the United States Department of 
Labor, the early reports of the Massachusetts 
Bureau of Statistics of Labor compiled under the 
direction of Carroll D. Wright, the Report on the 
Statistics of Wages by Jos. D. Weeks published as 
volume 20 of the Census of 1880, and the report of 
the Aldrich Committee of the Senate. For long series 
of years unchanging lists of establishments were used. 
For example one list of 69 establishments was used 
for 30 years unbroken. The manner of computation 
was much the same as that employed in constructing 
the teacher indexes except for the fact that in this 
case a considerably larger number of quotations was 
available. 

The index numbers for artisans' wages are averages 
of the wages of five types of skilled workers : black- 
smiths, carpenters, machinists, painters, and printers 
(compositors). In all of these trades there have been 
no such fundamental changes as to affect the com- 
parability of the data. The sources of information 
were largely the same as for laborers. 



70 



TABLE 8.— WEEKLY WAGES OF LABORERS AND ARTISANS. 
1841 TO 1920 



Year 


Laborers 


Artisans 


Year 


Laborers 


Artisans 


1841 


$4.86 


$8.28 


1881 


$8.16 


$15.28 


1842 


4.86 


8.33 


1882 


8.52 


15.44 


1843 


4.92 


8.28 


1883 


8.70 


15.56 


1844 


4.92 


8.33 


1884 


8.86 


15.77 


1845 


4.98 


8.38 


1885 


8.64 


15.61 


1846 


4.98 


8.60 


1886 


8.52 


15.60 


1847 


5.22 


8.88 


1887 


8.70 


15.62 


1848 


5.34 


8.86 


1888 


8.86 


15.65 


1849 


5.28 


9.07 


1889 


8.82 


15.58 


1850 


5.46 


9.10 


1890 


8.82 


15.64 


1851 


5.52 


9.14 


1891 


8.94 


15.63 


1852 


5.52 


9.12 


1892 


8.88 


15.84 


1853 


5.64 


9.41 


1893 


8.88 


15.72 


1854 


5.76 


9.71 


1894 


8.86 


15.45 


1855 


5.76 


9.85 


1895 


8.70 


15.37 


1856 


5.88 


9.84 


1896 


8.86 


15.49 


1857 


5.88 


10.04 


1897 


8.86 


15.41 


1858 


5.82 


9.88 


1898 


8.82 


15.44 


1859 


6.00 


10.02 


1899 


8.88 


15.55 


1860 


6.18 


10.07 


1900 


8.94 


15.82 


1861 


6.24 


10.24 


1901 


9.24 


16.05 


1862 


6.36 


10.30 


1902 


9.36 


16.52 


1863 


7.08 


11.02 


1903 


9.60 


17.04 


1864 


7.98 


12.66 


1904 


9.66 


17.13 


1865 


8.94 


14.90 


1905 


9.78 


17.58 


1866 


9.30 


15.36 


1906 


10.08 


18.13 


1867 


9.24 


15.97 


1907 


10.47 


18.74 


1868 


9.30 


16.66 


1908 


10.42 


19.04 


1869 


9.42 


17.08 


1909 


10.49 


19.17 


1870 


9.36 


16.94 


1910 


10.62 


19.79 


1871 


9.42 


16.82 


1911 


10.69 


19.99 


1872 


9.36 


16.91 


1912 


10.95 


20.38 


1873 


9.48 


16.83 


1913 


11.31 


20.78 


1874 


9.12 


16.45 


1914 


11.41 


21.25 


1875 


8.82 


16.20 


1915 


11.84 


21.38 


1876 


8.46 


15.96 


1916 


13.00 


22.44 


1877 


8.04 


15.52 


1917 


16.28 


23.80 


1878 


7.74 


14.89 


1918 


22.01 


28.31 


1879 


7.80 


14.74 


1919 


23.02 


33.05 


1880 


7.86 


14.98 


1920 


26.00i 


42.00i 



1 Estimated. 



Wages of Other Workers 
In order to make a comprehensive comparison be- 
tween the salaries of teachers and the wages of other 

71 



workers it would be desirable to secure figures for 
other types beside unskilled and skilled labor. A 
careful search has been made for data that would 
make possible the construction of index numbers for 
other kinds of workers. As a result a number of 
fragmentary series were found. The Weeks' report 
in the Census of 1880 gives the wages of foremen and 
shop superintendents in manufacturing establish- 
ments from 1840 to 1880; the reports of the Post- 
master General give figures from which it is possible 
to compute rough figures for the wages of city letter 
carriers from 1864 to 1918; the reports of the De- 
partment of Agriculture give the wages of farm 
laborers at intervals from 1866 to 1918. 

In the course of this study the wages of these 
various types of workers have been plotted with 
laborers and artisans. In every case the curve ran 
roughly parallel to the wage curves in Diagram 15. 
Whatever evidence it has been possible to secure all 
goes to substantiate the generalization that there is 
an exceedingly close relationship between the wages 
of various types of workers. In comparing teachers' 
salaries with the wages of laborers and artisans we 
are comparing teachers' salaries with the basal wages 
which we may safely take as representative of the 
general movement of wages. 

Country Teachers and Unskilled Laborers 
Diagram 16 brings together the curves for the 
salaries of teachers in rural schools and the wages of 



72 



laborers. 1 In 1841 the salaries of men teachers were 
slightly lower than laborers' wages while women's 
salaries were considerably lower. The three curves 
from that point on follow similar courses: fluctua- 

1 In this and succeeding diagrams and tables throughout 
this chapter it has been decided after careful consideration to 
use figures for weekly pay for weeks actually worked. The 
reasons leading to this decision were briefly as follows: 

1. The figures could be secured in this form and could not 
well be turned into annual pay. The records as to how many 
weeks a year a laborer or artisan works do not exist many years 
back. For teachers also the records in this respect are not 
complete. 

2. The evidence that was available all pointed towards very 
similar numbers of weeks of work on the part of city teachers 
and artisans. Evidence on this matter is found in the reports 
of the New York State Department of Labor. The Depart- 
ment began in 1904 receiving from representative trade unions 
reports as to the percentage of members of the unions idle at 
the end of each month. The figures for the thirteen years 1904 
to 1916 are published in Special Bulletin Number 85, July 
1917. The figures are given for separate industries and for all 
industries combined. There are large differences between in- 
dustries and there are wide seasonal and yearly fluctuations. 
For all industries the range between the average figures for 
different years is from about 10 to about 30 per cent of unem- 
ployment. The average seasonal fluctuation is from a high 
point of 28 per cent in January to a low point of 13 per cent in 
September. The grand average for all industries for 13 years 
was 19.7 per cent or practically 20 per cent of unemployed. 
On the average this represents unemployment one-fifth of the 
time, or in terms of weeks, more than 10 weeks a year. This 
almost exactly corresponds to the summer weeks when the 
city teacher is not usually paid. In the light of these facts a 
comparison between teachers and other workers on the basis 
of pay for weeks worked seemed reasonable. If it were pos- 
sible to compute pay actually received for yearly periods the 
figures arrived at would be more exact. They would show a 
somewhat larger wage for workmen in good years and a smaller 
wage in periods of depression. It is not believed that the gen- 
eral trend would be appreciably altered. 

3. In the case of rural teachers a shorter school year is offset 
by greater opportunity for supplementary employment. 

73 



tion in one is generally accompanied by a similar 
fluctuation in the others. There are, however, 
several notable differences. Up to the last decade 
teachers have steadily gained on laborers. In the 
past five years, however, laborers' wages have again 



$30 



20 



10 



























*•£*■ 


5^2 


\X7 




mm" \, 


££fc" 


/>•' 


22 


.«»ji>, 









1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 

Diagram 16. — Weekly salaries of men and women teachers in 
rural schools compared with weekly wages of laborers. 1841 
to 1920 



taken the lead. The salaries of teachers have appar- 
ently regained part of their lost ground in the current 
year. The rapid climb of laborers' wages in this 
period is in accordance with a general tendency, indi- 
cated elsewhere on the diagram, for laborers' wages 
to move more rapidly than teachers' salaries in any 
period of fluctuation. Following the Civil War 
laborers' wages reached their peak about 1868 while 

74 



teachers' salaries continued to climb until 1875. In 
the succeeding depression laborers' wages again lead 
the way. 

The general relationship between the curves up to 
the year 1915 is shown in Diagram 17 on which the 



$20 



15 



10 















/ 


y 














sC~* 


~~ 


-* 

•*»•* 


~s^ 


^ 




%l>5> 




r*^ 




/ 


^ 















1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 

Diagram 17. — Trends of salaries of men and women teachers 
in rural schools compared with trend of wages of laborers. 
1841 to 1915 



trend line is plotted for each of the three curves. The 
diagram illustrates particularly well the manner in 
which the teachers' curves have overtaken the labor 
curve. 

75 



City Teachers and Artisans 
As there is a close resemblance in trend between the 
curves showing the wages of unskilled laborers and 
those for country teachers, so there is a resemblance 
between the pay of artisans and city teachers. This 
is illustrated in Diagram 18 in which the figures for 
artisans and men and women city teachers are 
plotted together. The correspondence between the 
wages of city women teachers and artisans is particu- 
larly close. Men teachers run considerably higher. 
The curve for women starts at a figure about half of 
that for artisans and for 75 years draws nearer to the 
artisan curve so that, in 1915, the wages of artisans 
and the salaries of these teachers are very near to- 
gether. 

In the recent rise city teachers have kept pace with 
artisans much better than country teachers have with 
laborers. Salary increases for teachers show, how- 
ever, a considerable lag. The increases occur about 
one year behind artisan increases. This is again the 
same tendency which appeared at the time of the 
Civil War when it took teachers a number of years 
longer than artisans to secure salary increases to 
meet changed conditions. Artisans' wages reach a 
peak in 1869, those of teachers not until 1875. 

The figures for male teachers are not so easily 
comparable with those for artisans. When allowance 
is made for the largeness of the figures which tend in 
the diagram to emphasize the fluctuations, the 
movement is seen to be similar to that of the other 
two curves, except that the rise from 1900 to 1915 is 

76 



$60 
50 
40 
30 
20 
10 

n 


























































Hen t 


nob* 


r • 1 


















%/ 






•• 

• 
• 
• 
• i 


lot* 


Artii 


• Of 




'•/ 


—.••" 


.0 ' 















1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 

Diagram 18. — Weekly salaries of men and women teachers in 
city schools compared with weekly wages of artisans. 1841 
to 1920 



77 



much less marked. Both the artisans and women 
teachers have exceeded the previous high wage figure 
of the Civil War by 1905; the curve for men teachers 
does not go as high as its 1875 level until 1915. It is 
interesting that the curves for men teachers and arti- 

$40 



30 



20 



10 





1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 

Diagram 19. — Trends of salaries of men and women teachers 
in city schools compared with trend of artisans' wages. 1841 
to 1915 



-^ 

-^ ^r*- 



sans both show distinct recessions about 1879 which 
are hardly reflected in the curve for women. Women 
teachers were not as much affected as were men by a 
period of industrial depression. 

The general trends of these curves are shown in 
78 



Diagram 19, which is chiefly valuable as an illustra- 
tion of the way in which the women teachers have 
been gaining on artisans for the 75 year period, 1841 
to 1915. The trend line for men teachers is apt to 
give a false impression. The steepness of the slope 
of the line caused by the greater size of the figures 
gives the impression of a more rapid relative in- 
crease than actually took place. In this case the 
percentage increases are probably more significant 
than the round numbers. They are shown in the 
next diagram. 

Per Cent Increases in Salaries and Wages 
Diagram 20 turns the trend lines which were shown 
in the last diagram and in Diagram 17 into per cent 
trends taking the regression figure for 1841 as 100 per 
cent. Rural and city women teachers are approx- 
imately together with increases of 450 per cent over 
the initial figures. Rural men are next with an in- 
crease of about 350 per cent. Then after a long gap 
city men, artisans, and laborers are grouped together 
at figures between 100 and 200 per cent ahead of 
the starting point. 

It is safe to reason from these figures that for 
75 years we have been getting constantly more able 
and better trained women teachers and better men 
teachers in rural schools. At the end of the period an 
able person would be far more likely to choose one of 
these three types of teaching as his calling than 
early in the period. A person could much better 
afford extended training. Hence it is fair to reason 

79 



that the much better salaries in these three types of 
teaching, as compared with wages in other work, 
meant better teachers. The same statement is not 
true of city men teachers. Their position in 1915 was 



Per cent 
600 



500 



400 



300 



200 



100 



















,■£ 


t 












# 


^ 










^ 


£ 


^ 








>J 


^ 


<y 




2&" 








g 








JrXE- 5 - 























1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 

Diagram 20. — Trends of salaries of teachers compared with 
the trends of wages of laborers and artisans. 1841 to 1915 

practically no more desirable than before the Civil 
War. In the interim the requirements in terms of 
training and administrative ability have increased 
greatly. Then the typical man teacher was a grade 
teacher in elementary school. Today the typical 
city man teacher is a high school teacher or an ex- 

80 



ecutive. Upon this class we rely very largely today 
for our educational leaders. The requirements of 
training for the artisan have increased hardly at all 
in 75 years; the requirements for the man city 



Per cent 
225 



200 



175 



150 



125 



100 



75 



50 



25 











/ 








isieiii-" 


'/ 








.*> 


/ 




^ 




^ 


^ 








v^ 













































1915 



1916 



1917 



1918 



1919 



1920 



Diagram 21. — Salaries of teachers and wages of laborers and 
artisans each year from 1915 to 1920 in per cents of the figures 
for 1915 

teacher have been increased many fold. The reward 
of the teacher has advanced, however, at about the 
same rate as the reward of the artisan. Relatively 
the position of the teacher is much less desirable, 
e 81 



The Trend Since 1915 
In 1915 a new kind of movement began. Wages 
started to soar upward. Teachers' salaries have 
followed a year or two behind. The percentage in- 
creases for teachers, as compared with the wages of 
laborers and artisans, are shown in Diagram 21. In 
this period the wages of laborers had through 1919 
increased nearly twice as much as those of artisans, 
while wages of artisans have increased twice as much 
as the average for all types of teachers. 



The Wage Value of the Teacher's Salary 
In the last chapter a diagram was inserted showing 
the relative purchasing power of the teacher's salary 
for 80 years by indicating the per cent which the 
teacher's salary each year was of the cost of a certain 
kind of living. The following diagrams are of the 
same type. The first one, Diagram 22, shows how 
much of a laborer's wage the average woman teacher's 
salary would pay each year or, in other words, shows 
the per cent the teacher's salary is of the laborer's 
wage. In computing the per cents the figure used for 
teachers was an average of the index numbers for 
women teachers in rural and city schools. 1 The curve 
shows many of the same characteristics as the curve 
comparing women's salaries and the cost of living. 

1 As in the previous case where an average for salaries of 
women teachers was used, the figures for rural teachers were 
given a weight of two and those for city teachers a weight of 
one. 

82 



Teachers' salaries in 1841 were 65 per cent as large as 
laborers' wages. They show a gain until the high 
wages of the Civil War dwarf teachers' salaries by 
comparison. After a large temporary setback they 
gain again until they reach a peak in 1878, during a 
period of financial depression when laborers' wages 
receded. The highest peak was reached in 1914. 

Per cent 
150 



100 



50 





1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 

Diagram 22. — Per cent the average salary of women teachers 
was of the wages of laborers each year from 1841 to 1920 



fcabor 


• *•• 






Teaofc 


•ill! 


%l lHr 


e » 1 


V-w-^ 


/ 


y 


JT 



























Then, with war increases of laborers' wages, teachers' 
salaries recede to a point relatively lower than labor- 
ers' wages and lower than at any other time since the 
Civil War. A beginning has now been made in the 
recovery of lost ground. 

In Diagram 23 a similar comparison is made between 
the average salaries of women teachers and the wages 

83 



of artisans. Teachers' salaries have consistently been 
lower than wages of artisans, but have been steadily 
gaining so that in 1915 teachers were receiving 75 
per cent as much as such workers as blacksmiths, 
carpenters, machinists, painters, and printers. The 
figure dropped to 56 per cent in 1919. 

Per cent 



100 



75 



50 



25 







Art 


i«»ni 


' wag 


>8 


























,.»• 


^ 


g$ 


*•• 









































1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 



1920 



Diagram 23. — Per cent the average salary of women teachers 
was of the wages of artisans each year from 1841 to 1920 

One may summarize the facts set forth in these two 
diagrams by saying that for 75 years teachers were 
steadily gaining a professional status as skilled work- 
ers. They were steadily achieving differentiation 
from the unskilled worker. In five years a consider- 
able part of the ground gained has been lost but the 

84 



forces have been set in motion for its complete re- 
covery. 

The experience of the past would seem to support 
an optimistic view not alone as to the complete and 
rapid recovery of all lost ground but as to still further 
future advances. The trend is upward. 

The Artisan's Wage a Working Standard 
The evidence from Professor Moore's writings and 
the similar evidence in this and the preceding chapter 
all go to show that wages are a better basis for deter- 
mining salary levels than are figures as to the cost of 
living. There is slight direct causal relationship be- 
tween wages and the cost of living. The two do not 
necessarily fluctuate wholly together. The cost of 
living depends eventually upon the effort required at 
any time and in any country to produce the neces- 
sities of life. This must fluctuate from time to time 
and as it fluctuates the cost of living rises or falls 
quite apart from the movement of wages. The final 
basis for the amount of pay a man may receive is the 
amount he is able to produce. All wages are built on 
what the least competent workman can produce. In 
the long run what a person receives over and above 
this wage is compensation for special ability which he 
possesses. It is these laws which operate to give the 
wages of laborers and artisans and teachers such 
similar trends. The progress which the teacher has 
made in raising her pay in relation to that of other 
workers has been built on the increased ability which 
comes from increased training. 

85 



In the light of these facts the most valuable com- 
parisons which can be made in determining the levels 
of teachers' pay are those of which this chapter has 
given illustration, between the salaries of teachers 
and other workers. A fuller appreciation of the value 
of this type of statistics should make available the 
records of the pay of more kinds of workers, partic- 
ularly those of higher degrees of training. For the 
present the standard which seems most immediately 
within reach for women teachers is that of artisans' 
wages. The salaries of women teachers have been 
gradually approaching artisans' wages for many 
years. The exact level of artisans' wages can readily 
be obtained in any community for purposes of com- 
parison. The case for teachers receiving at least as 
high a wage as artisans appears essentially a reason- 
able one from the point of view of skill and training 
required. This standard cannot, of course, be taken 
as a fixed one but simply as the next step in following 
the trend in the rise in teachers' salaries which ac- 
companies increased training. 

Summary 
1. There is a closer relationship between the wages 
paid different types of workers than between wages 
and the cost of living. 

2. Index numbers have been computed for the 
weekly wages of laborers and artisans from 1841 to 
1920. 

3. The salaries of country teachers are similar in 



86 



amount and in general movement to the wages of 
unskilled laborers. 

4. The salaries of city women teachers are similar 
in amount and general movement to wages of artisans. 

5. From 1841 to 1915 all country teachers and city 
women teachers gained on laborers and artisans in 
the amounts of pay received. 

6. City men teachers, in spite of increasing re- 
quirements, have made practically no greater per- 
centage gains in salary in the 75 years from 1841 to 
1915 than have artisans and laborers. 

7. Since 1915 the pay of artisans and laborers has 
increased twice as much as that of teachers. 

8. In relation to the laborer the average woman 
teacher was in 1918, 1919, and 1920 less well off 
financially than at any other time since the Civil War. 

9. The average salary of women teachers was for 
75 years gradually approaching the wage of artisans. 
That wage may well be taken today as a working 
standard for the pay of women teachers. 



87 



CHAPTER V 

THE TREND OF BUILDING COSTS 

In spite of the remarkable improvement which has 
taken place in the construction of school buildings in 
the past 30 years, the percentage of the country's 
school budget which was spent for new buildings was 
no higher in 1915 or 1918 than it was in 1890. The 
proportion remained nearly constant during the 
period at a figure between 16 and 19 per cent of 
total school expenditures. The percentages at five 
year periods and in 1918 are shown in Diagram 24. 
The two highest figures were reached in 1890 and 
in 1905. Aside from these two periods all of the 
figures fall within a range of less than two per cent. 
There is certainly no tendency toward spending a 
larger share for new buildings. Back of 1890 com- 
plete reliable figures are not available but such evi- 
dence as there is seems to point to about as large 
percentages for school house construction in the early 
years as are shown in Diagram 24. 

The striking uniformity of these percentages is 
accounted for by the fact that there have been two 
compensating factors in building which have offset 
each other to such a degree that building costs have 
increased at the same pace as other school costs. 

88 



There has been, as is generally recognized, a com- 
plete transformation in the construction of school 
buildings in the past 30 years. The modern fireproof 
structure is entirely different from and far more ex- 



iae 



19.3 



16.7 



16.5 



16.4 



17J0 



1&6 



I860 1895 1900 1906 1910 1915 1918 

Diagram 24. — Per cent of school expenditures in the United 
States devoted to sites, buildings, and equipment at five year 
intervals. 1890 to 1918 



pensive than its less substantial predecessors. The 
cost of this advance in type of construction has been 
largely offset, however, by the fact that the actual 

89 



cost of building material and building labor has risen 
more slowly than the school budget. 

An Index Number for Building Costs 
An index number which will show the trend of the 
cost of building cannot be constructed directly be- 
cause the same kinds of buildings are not put up year 
after year. The types are constantly changing. The 
only practicable method is to compute the building 
index in terms of its components. On the average 
about half the cost of a building is labor and about 
half is materials. There are available from the pre- 
ceding chapter good index numbers of the trends of 
the wages of laborers and artisans. These figures 
taken together with an index number of the cost of 
building materials will yield approximate trends for 
the cost of building. 

There are available index numbers for the cost of 
building materials from 1890 to the present in the 
monthly publications of the United States Bureau of 
Labor Statistics. This index includes an adequate 
selection of the different standard types of materials. 
It is constructed by the method of relatives, the fig- 
ures for each item each year being expressed as a per 
cent of the figures of a given year. The average of 
these percentages is taken as the index number. 
Back of the year 1890 another series is available in 
the Aldrich report, made up in the same manner and 
containing largely the same items. The two series are 
so similar that they can readily be combined to give 
a continuous index from the year 1841 to the present. 

90 



The resulting curve is shown in Diagram 25 together 
with the trend line from 1841 to 1915. In this case, 
as in previous ones, the last five years are so peculiar 




1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 

Diagram 25. — Relative prices of lumber and building mate- 
rials from 1841 to 1920, in per cents of the figures for 1860 



in character as to require separate treatment. The 
figures for 1920 are those for the month of February. 
It will be noticed that the scale of the diagram is in 

91 



percentages, the year 1860 being taken as the base, 
100 per cent. The curve with its trend line resembles 
the curve for the cost of living more than any other 
thus far included in this study. It is notable that up 
to 1915 the upward trend in building materials has 
been slight. Advances in lumber and other natural 
products have been offset by improvements in the 
manufacture of other products. 

The building figures and the figures for artisans 
wages are brought into comparison in Diagram 26 by 
using the trend line of each curve expressed in per 
cents of its initial figure. Thus over the 75 year 
period artisans' wages show a tendency to increase 
132 per cent, or a step of a little less than two per cent 
each year over the initial figures, and the cost of 
building material 36 per cent, or about one-half of 
one per cent each year over the initial figures. Since 
artisans' wages and laborers' wages run so nearly to- 
gether we are safe in using the artisans' index here as 
typical of the trend of the wages of both artisans and 
laborers, without the necessity for determining what 
proportion of the work of building construction is 
carried forward by skilled and what by unskilled 
labor. The artisans' figure it will be remembered is 
made up from the wages of blacksmiths, carpenters, 
machinists, painters, and printers. The wages of all 
five of these artisans moved closely together. Hence 
the index is probably as good for showing the general 
trend of wages in building as it would be if we took 
the carpenters and painters alone and it has the added 
stability of more quotations. A general similarity 

92 



between the wages of these and representatives of 
other building trades is demonstrable. 

On the basis of our previous assumptions we may 
now determine with a fair degree of confidence the 



Per cent 
250 



225 

200 

175 

150 

125 

100 

75 

50 

25 



















s 












.»** 


>/- 












^ 


^ 




*.*' 








J* 


•-,''- 


#& 


.v-* 








^"~ 






••il 


J£^ 




^ 


t C*~* 


** 


tJU * 









































































1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 



1840 

Diagram 26. — Trends of artisans' wages, the cost of building 
materials, and estimated cost of building, in per cents of the 
figures for 1841 

trend of the cost of building, that is the cost of 
building the same kind of structure each year. A 
dotted line has been drawn in the diagram to indicate 
a trend halfway between that of building materials 
and wages. On this basis the cost of building shows 

93 



an increase over 75 years of 84 per cent, or something 
more than one per cent a year. The gradual character 
of this rise makes clear the reason why it has been 
possible to improve school construction so greatly 
without increasing the proportion of the school in- 
come devoted to that purpose. The teachers' salary 
curve has risen many times as fast as the building 
curve and total expenditures have risen faster than 
salaries. 

Increases 1913 to 1920 
For seven years past much more complete records 
are available as to the course of building costs. There 
are, in the first place, more complete figures for the 
trend of wages in the building trades to combine with 
the cost of materials in making up a building index. 
In the second place, we have for several important 
cities, detail as to the actual cost of school buildings 
from 1913 to 1919. 

The Monthly Labor Review, published by the 
United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, carries for 
the more important cities throughout the country 
the union scale of wages in the building trades. For 
10 cities the figures are complete from 1913 to 1919 for 
eight kinds of building artisans and three kinds of build- 
ing laborers. 1 The average hourly wages in each of the 
trades have been computed for the 10 cities and have 
then been turned into per cents, taking as 100 per 
cent the averages for 1913. The resulting figures are 
given in Table 9. The 10 cities for which the quota- 

1 Monthly Labor Review, November, 1919. 
94 



tions were taken were Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, 
Kansas City (Missouri), Louisville, New York, Prov- 
idence, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, 
D. C. The figures from which the table was com- 
puted show that artisans' wages are now moving 
close to the $1.00 an hour wage, which has been 
reached and exceeded in many cities. The range of 
the average wages in the different trades is small, 
less than 10 cents in 1919. 



TABLE 9.— WAGES IN THE BUILDING TRADES, 1913 TO 1920, IN 
10 CITIES, IN PER CENTS OF FIGURES FOR 1913 



Wage Earners 


1913 


1914 


1915 


1916 


1917 


1918 


1919 


1920 


Artisans 


















Bricklayers 


100 


102 


102 


103 


106 


118 


136 




Carpenters 


100 


103 


105 


107 


115 


126 


159 




Cement Finishers 


100 


101 


101 


105 


111 


123 


148 




Inside Wiremen 


100 


103 


1Q7 


107 


121 


126 


160 




Painters 


100 


103 


104 


108 


113 


130 


163 




Plasterers 


100 


100 


101 


102 


107 


116 


137 




Plumbers 


100 


102 


102 


104 


108 


122 


141 




Struct. Iron Workers 


100 


103 


104 


104 


113 


129 


151 




Average 


100 


102 


103 


105 


112 


124 


149 


182' 


Laborers 


















Building Laborers 


100 


102 


102 


103 


118 


143 


183 




Plasterers Laborers 


100 


102 


103 


105 


116 


133 


164 




Hod Carriers 


100 


101 


104 


105 


118 


139 


177 




Average 


100 


102 


103 


104 


117 


138 


175 


240» 


General Average 


100 


102 


103 


105 


115 


131 


162 


211' 



1 Estimated. 



The percentage increase among the artisans into 
1919 ranges from 36 to 63. The best paid artisans, 
plasterers and bricklayers, have received the smallest 

95 



relative increases. On the average the increase during 
the period is about 50 per cent, and is estimated at 82 
per cent up to February, 1920. The laborers show a 
larger increase, ranging from 64 to 83 per cent, and 



Per cent 



»JUU 














1 I 
















1 / 
















A/ 
















/%' 
















lot 
















1*9 j 


200 














1 1 / 
















If 












♦< 




7 












* > 


f*y s 














&> 


// 














S* ^* 
















ss^s^ 






100 








^^- 


>^^ 
























1913 



1914 



1915 



1916 



1917 



1918 



1919 



1920 



Diagram 27. — The cost of building materials, the wages of 
artisans and laborers, and the estimated cost of building each 
year from 1913 to 1920, in per cents of the figures for 1913 



averaging 75 per cent into 1919, with a large addi- 
tional increase in 1920. A general average for both 
into 1920 shows an increase of a little more than 100 

96 



per cent. 1 In taking this general average, the aver- 
ages for artisans and laborers are given equal weights. 
The figures can now be plotted with the last part of 
the index of the cost of building materials of Diagram 
25 turned into per cents of the 1913 figure. The two 
curves are shown together in Diagram 27. The 
dotted line for the total cost of building is plotted 
halfway between the wage and material curves. 
This brings the index in 1920 to a point approaching 
260 per cent of the 1913 figure. The largest gain is 
made in the current year due largely to the jump in 
the price of building materials. 

Actual Costs in Cleveland 
During the seven years from 1913 to 1919 the city of 
Cleveland built 22 school buildings. The school ar- 
chitect, Mr. W. R. McCornack, has prepared tables 
showing the cost of each of these buildings under 
seven main divisions: masonry, finish, iron and steel, 
plaster, heating, plumbing, and wiring. The number 
of cubic feet in each building and the total cost per 
cubic foot were also computed. These figures give a 
basis for a direct index number of actual increase in 
the cost of school buildings in a large American city 
in the past seven years. This number measures not 
alone labor and material costs but differences in ex- 
pense due to changes in construction. 

1 The increases shown in Table 9 are based on hourly wages. 
In many cases the hours per week have been considerably 
reduced. Hence the percentages shown here are not a true 
index of total wages received by each worker. They are a 
correct basis for estimating increased building costs. 
7 97 



To bring all the figures on a comparable basis the 
cost per cubic foot of the buildings constructed each 
year has been computed under the seven divisions. 
The resulting figures are given in Table 10 in cents. 
The cost of masonry shown in the first line increased 
from 8 cents per cubic foot of building in 1913 to 19 
cents in 1919. Masonry is the largest item, finish and 
heating coming next. The total cost per cubic foot is 
shown at the foot of the table. It has risen from 17 
cents in 1913 to nearly 54 cents in 1919, an increase 
of more than 200 per cent. The masonry alone in 
1919 cost more than the entire building in 1913. 

TABLE 10.— COST IN CENTS PER CUBIC FOOT OF SCHOOL 
BUILDINGS CONSTRUCTED IN CLEVELAND. 1913 TO 1919 



Elements 


1913 


1914 


1915 


1916 


1917 


1918 


1919 


Masonry 


8.1 


8.1 


8.7 


11.1 


13.5 


15.0 


19.4 


Finish 


3.0 


3.2 


4.5 


7.1 


7.7 


9.2 


11.6 


Iron & Steel 


1.3 


.5 


.9 


1.6 


1.8 


2.3 


1.7 


Plaster 


1.1 


.8 


.9 


1.0 


1.1 


1.4 


1.9 


Heating 


2.5 


1.9 


2.3 


3.6 


4.9 


7.3 


11.7 


Plumbing 


.9 


1.2 


1.3 


2.0 


2.6 


4.2 


5.1 


Wiring 


.2 


.4 


.6 


1.4 


1.0 


1.2 


2.0 


Total 


17.1 


16.1 


19.2 


27.8 


32.6 


40.7 


53.5 



The relationships of the different main divisions of 
the cost are reproduced in Diagram 28. The different 
lines in the diagram show the cost per cubic foot of 
building of the main items from year to year. The 
cost of masonry in the construction of brick buildings 
is far and away the most important expenditure. 
Finish, which started in second position, has been 
passed by heating, the cost of which has climbed 

98 



more rapidly. Iron and steel shows the only decrease, 
due in some degree to the policy of constructing one 
story buildings. The cost of wiring which was in 1913 
a small item has increased more rapidly than any 
other and in the past year has exceeded iron and steel 
and plaster in expense. 




1913 



1914 



1915 



1916 



1917 



1918 



1919 



Diagram 28. — Cost per cubic foot of different elements of 
buildings constructed in Cleveland from 1913 to 1919 



An Index of Cost Changes 
The facts of the preceding table and diagram may 
conveniently be turned into the form of index num- 



bers by computing each year's figures as per cents of 
the 1913 quotations. This procedure will indicate 
more clearly the relative changes which have taken 
place. It has been done in Table 11 which is based 
directly on Table 10. 

The largest percentage increase is in wiring for 
which the 1919 cost is 10 times that in 1913. Plumb- 
ing and heating show the next highest increases. The 
three may be considered together as the mechanical 
trades. The other four divisions which we may group 
together under the term "building," show much 
smaller increases. The total figure for 1919 is three 
times as high as the 1913 cost. 

TABLE 11.— COST PER CUBIC FOOT OF SCHOOL BUILDINGS 

CONSTRUCTED IN CLEVELAND, 1913 TO 1919, IN PER CENTS OF 

FIGURES FOR 1913 



Elements 


1913 


1914 


1915 


1916 


1917 


1918 


1919 


Masonry 


100 


99 


107 


136 


166 


184 


238 


Finish 


100 


107 


151 


237 


258 


307 


387 


Iron & Steel 


100 


39 


69 


123 


139 


177 


131 


Plaster 


100 


73 


82 


91 


100 


127 


173 


Heating 


100 


76 


92 


144 


196 


292 


468 


Plumbing 


100 


133 


144 


222 


289 


467 


567 


Wiring 


100 


200 


300 


700 


500 


600 


1000 


Total 


100 


94 


112 


163 


191 


238 


313 



There are no statistics from other cities immedi- 
ately available on exactly the same basis as the 
Cleveland data. There are, however, records from 
New York, Boston, and Chicago which make it 
clear that a 200 per cent increase in building costs is 
not peculiar to Cleveland, but is a general condition. 
Mr. C. B. J. Snyder, the architect of the New York 

100 



City Board of Education, has prepared a table show- 
ing the cost per cubic foot of the construction of dif- 
ferent types of elementary school buildings in New 
York City according to bids submitted in succeeding 
months of the years 1919 and 1920. In Table 12 



TABLE 12.— COST IN CENTS PER CUBIC FOOT OF GENERAL 
CONSTRUCTION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDINGS IN 
NEW YORK CITY ACCORDING TO LOWEST BIDS RECEIVED 
EACH MONTH IN 1919 AND 1920, AND PER CENT THESE COSTS 
WERE OF 1913 FIGURES » 





Cents per 


Per cent of 


Month 


cubic foot 


1913 costs 2 


1919 






February- 


37.2 


186 


March 


33.6 


168 


April 


37.4 


187 


May 


39.5 


198 


June 






July 


42.5 


2i3 


August 


44.9 


225 


September 


42.2 


211 


October 


48.1 


241 


November 






December 


48.3 


242 


1920 






January 


56.0 


280 


February 


58.4 


292 


March 


59.0 


295 


April 
May 


65.0 


325 


71.0 


355 


June 


73.0 


365 



J The figures cover building construction alone; not costs of heating, 
plumbing, and lighting plants, and furniture. 

* 1913 costs are taken at 20 cents per cubic foot. 



these figures are presented together with the per- 
centage increase which they represent over 1913 
costs on the basis of an average cost in 1913 of 20 
cents per cubic foot. For purposes of this compari- 
son all types of buildings, together with additions, are 
put together. The differences of type are only 

101 



sufficient to cause minor fluctuations in the figures. 
The increases from month to month are so marked 
as to eliminate minor differences. The only excep- 
tions to a continuous increase were in February and 
September, 1919. In these cases the figures were 
affected by unusual circumstances as to amount or 
kind of excavation required. 

If we compute from the Cleveland table of costs 
the increases in construction alone, omitting heating, 
plumbing, and lighting, we have a figure closely 
similar to those shown for New York. In 1913 the 
cost of building construction alone averaged 13.5 
cents per cubic foot, and in 1919 had risen to 34.7. 
The percentage of 1919 costs to 1913 costs was 255. 
The difference between this percentage and the New 
York figure can be accounted for by differences in 
types of buildings and the fact that the Cleveland 
figures are affected by an expensive building con- 
tracted for on December 29, 1919. 

The important fact about the New York City 
figures is that they substantiate in the main the 
Cleveland figures for 1919 and show for 1920 in- 
creases considerably ahead of the 1919 levels. In 
1920 school buildings in New York City are costing 
three and one-half times as much as in 1913. 

The data available from Boston, prepared by the 
Boston Schoolhouse Commission, are in the form of 
cost per classroom, and are only for the years 1916 
and 1919. The figures are given in Table 13. They 
show the comparative cost per standard classroom of 
two similar 16 room buildings with assembly hall 

102 



erected in 1916 and December, 1919. The total cost 
shows an increase in this three year period of 140 per 
cent. This rate of increase is even somewhat greater 
than the rate for the same period in Cleveland. From 
1916 to 1919 the increase in cost per cubic foot of 
building in Cleveland was 92 per cent. The cost per 
classroom cannot readily be computed on exactly the 
same basis as the Boston figures. Two somewhat 
similar Cleveland buildings erected in 1916 and 1919 

TABLE 13.— COST PER UNIT CLASS ROOM OF A 16-ROOM ELE- 
MENTARY SCHOOL IN BOSTON. 1916 AND DECEMBER, 1919 



Elements 


1916 


December 
1919 


Per cent 1919 

costs were of 

1916 costs 


Heating 
Plumbing 
Electrical 
Building 


$729 
345 
281 

6,770 


$1,575 
563 
563 

16,793 


216 
163 

200 

248 


Total 


$8,125 


$19,494 


240 



show an increase in the cost per classroom of 97 per 
cent. Cleveland costs for heating and plumbing rose 
more rapidly and costs for building less rapidly than 
in Boston. A part of the increases in Boston from 
1916 to 1919 probably compensated for an earlier 
rise in Cleveland. In any case the Boston evidence 
supplements the New York data in demonstrating 
that the increases shown in Cleveland are in no sense 
unique. 

There is evidence of a somewhat different character 
from Chicago. Mr. A. F. Hussander, architect of the 

103 



Chicago schools, has compiled a table showing the 
cost per cubic foot of a selected list of schools of 
similar types erected from 1913 to 1920. These 
selected schools show increases over 1913 costs of 
nearly 100 per cent in 1919 and 145 per cent in Feb- 
ruary, 1920. The increases are less than in other 
cities, particularly in the instance of one school con- 
tracted for in 1920. 

The evidence from all four cities goes to indicate 
a greater increase in the cost of school buildings than 
is shown by the general index of the cost of building 
made up from the wages of workmen and the cost of 
building materials. This difference is quite under- 
standable and may be attributed to a number of 
different factors. In the first place the dates under 
which the school buildings are listed are the dates of 
receiving bids or letting contracts. In all cases this 
is from one to two years earlier than the completion 
of the building. The contracts represent the best 
estimates of the contractors as to what wages and the 
cost of building materials will be in the coming year. 
The school house figures should therefore be com- 
pared with the general index numbers for building 
six months or a year later. 

Further causes which are cited to account for high 
costs of schools are the margin which contractors 
must allow because of the uncertain market, the 
difficulties and increased expense of transportation, 
decreased efficiency of workmen, and changes in con- 
struction making for greater educational effectiveness. 

These factors tending to increase costs have been 
104 



offset in no small measure, however, by very con- 
siderable building economies which have been in- 
troduced. 

In Cleveland experimentation has been carried 
forward in a one-story type of building which saves 
enough corridor space and basement construction to 
cut the total cost per classroom about 25 per cent. 
In New York economies have taken the form of 
planning each building to reduce each feature to the 
minimum size, cutting down elaboration and orna- 
ment in design of exterior, the use of less expensive 
materials, permitting the contractor latitude in the 
choice of materials, and making drawings and speci- 
fications so explicit that no allowance would have to 
be made for uncertainty as to their meaning. With- 
out these economies the figures shown in the pre- 
ceding tables would have been considerably higher. 

The building situation in 1920 may be summarized 
by saying that the general index of the cost of build- 
ing is two and one-half times its pre-war level; and 
that in spite of considerable economies school build- 
ings which anticipate the movements of the general 
index are actually costing fully three times as much 
as before the war. 

Summary 

1. Since 1890 building costs have absorbed from 16 
to 19 per cent of all school expenditures. 

2. Rising standards of building were for many 
years offset by low costs of building. 

3. For 75 years, 1841 to 1915, the cost of building 

105 



increased about 84 per cent, or about one per cent a 
year. 

4. From 1913 to 1919 the cost of city school build- 
ings has risen about 150 per cent, or 25 per cent a 
year. 

5. A level 200 per cent in advance of 1913 prices 
seems probable in 1920. 

6. In the past few years rising standards of con- 
struction have gone with rapidly increasing building 
costs. 



10(5 



CHAPTER VI 

DOUBLING THE SCHOOL BUDGET 

This inquiry into the trend of school costs was begun 
by selecting for study in detail the two largest items 
of expenditure — salaries and new buildings. These 
two items in 1918 constituted practically 80 per cent 
of all expenditures of the schools of the country. 
Their amounts practically determine the size of the 
school budget. From the foregoing study of the 
trends of salaries and building costs it now becomes 
possible to estimate the necessary levels of school 
costs in the coming year or two, and to venture some 
forecasts as to probable expenditures for a still longer 
period. 

Salary Levels 

Salaries of superintendents, supervisors, principals, 
teachers, and janitors are nearly two-thirds of all 
school costs in the United States. The amounts of 
the salaries which it is necessary to pay to these 
workers to secure able and efficient service are deter- 
mined by definite economic principles and facts. For 
the purpose of the present discussion these may be 
summarized as follows: 

1. All wages and salaries tend to fluctuate closely 
together since they are all eventually determined by 
the productive power of the individual. 

107 



2. The wage of the common laborer is in the nature 
of a base pay upon which other wages are built. 

3. Teachers' salaries are no exception to the gen- 
eral rule. In the past they have fluctuated with 
wages. 

4. In particular teachers' salaries have followed 
closely the fluctuations of the wages of common labor 
and of artisans. 

5. Since 1915 laborers' wages have increased about 
100 per cent. Artisans' wages have risen nearly as 
high in proportion. 

6. The cost of living has also risen about 100 per 
cent since 1915. 

From these facts it seems clear that the pay of 
teachers and other school officers will tend to settle 
within the next year or two at a level 100 per cent 
higher than in 1915. It is equally clear that if such 
an adjustment does not occur the teacher will be in a 
less favorable position than workers in other occupa- 
tions and the more able and ambitious workers will 
leave the profession. 

These conclusions hold good for all types of school 
salaries and wages. The wages of the janitor are 
evidently determined by the wages of skilled and un- 
skilled labor and his wages react rapidly to changes 
in their level. It is equally true that the salary of the 
superintendent is determined by the general salary 
levels which rest on the wage of common labor. And 
it is fully as necessary that his salary be changed to 
meet changing conditions. In fact it is even more 
necessary because the keenest competition for men in 

108 



business and professional life is the competition for 
leaders. If the schools are to secure and retain able 
leaders, the salaries paid must rise to meet new salary- 
levels. To make the case more pointed, the city 
which paid its superintendent $10,000 before the war 
should now be paying $20,000 for the same kind of 
ability. The principal who did receive $4,000, should 
now receive $8,000. In discussions of salary sched- 
ules there should be as great care taken to ensure able 
leadership for the schools as to insure for the lowest 
paid teachers a reasonable standard of living. The 
discussion should center on how much the teacher is 
worth as compared with other workers, rather than 
on how little he or she requires for bare subsistence. 
Governments are by nature slow in making ad- 
justments to new conditions. They are dependent on 
the support of the people and they cannot act on any 
question until the majority of the people are ready to 
support action. Governmental expenditures are de- 
termined by annual budgets and annual levies of 
taxes. Income is dependent to a large degree on 
property, the value of which increases slowly. For 
these reasons the salaries of government workers lag 
behind other salaries in periods of rapid change. The 
result is that at times like the present, governments 
lose many of their most able employees. Since the 
armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, more 
than 2,000 regular Army officers have resigned their 
commissions to accept more lucrative positions in 
civil life. The number is nearly one-quarter of the 
total number of regular officers. Government de- 

109 



partments in Washington are finding it nearly im- 
possible to hold their able men on the salaries they 
are authorized to pay. The number of applicants for 
positions as letter carrier in cities is, if a typical city 
district in New York be taken as an illustration, less 
than one-tenth as large as before the war. 

As the largest group of civil servants in the coun- 
try, teachers have been under the same handicap. 
The increases into 1920, of less than 50 per cent over 
pre-war salaries, have been only half as great as the 
increase in general wage levels. There can be no 
serious question that this lag has lost the schools of 
the country thousands of their more able teachers 
and has kept thousands from entering the teaching 
profession. This loss means lowered standards and a 
check to school progress. Every month that the scale 
of salaries in the teaching profession remains behind 
the general salary level, the situation is aggravated. 
What is required immediately is an increase which 
will bring teachers' salaries to a level approximately 
100 per cent in advance of the level in 1915. 

New Buildings 
During the period of the war, school building was 
largely checked, particularly in cities. This is illus- 
trated in Diagram 29, which shows the outlays for 
schools per capita of the population in cities over 
30,000 for the two war years compared with 1915 
and 1916. On this basis building in 1918 was cut 
down one-third as compared with 1915. The situation 
was, however, really worse than the diagram shows, 

110 



for a dollar spent for building in 1918 would buy- 
only about two-thirds as much as in 1915. 

While figures are not yet available for 1919 it seems 



$1.5** 




Diagram 29. — Outlays for schools for each inhabitant in cities 
of more than 30,000 population. 1915 to 1918 



likely that they will still show the amounts spent for 
building considerably lower than in 1915. In the 
early spring of 1919, when building would naturally 

111 



have been resumed on a large scale, operations were 
delayed by a hesitancy to launch new undertakings 
without more assurance as to the stability of eco- 
nomic conditions. It was discovered then that bond 
issues for new buildings could not be floated on the 
former basis. Bonds issued at the old interest rates 
could be sold only at considerably under their par 
value. There was, moreover, a shortage of building 
materials. The schools therefore are entering the 
current year under-equipped with buildings. The 
construction of the next few years must be sufficient 
to make up this deficit as well as to provide for new 
increases of the school population and the replace- 
ment of old buildings now unfit for use. This heavy 
demand for new accommodations is accompanied by 
a cost of construction estimated in a previous chapter 
at three times the pre-war figures. 

Other Expenditures 
In the first chapter a diagram was inserted showing 
all expenditures in the schools of the country in 1918 
and the percentage which each expenditure was of 
the total. The items mentioned, aside from salaries 
and outlays, are repeated in Table 14 for further 
analysis. With each item is shown the relation it 
bore to the total. The percentages are here shown 
worked out to one place of decimals, whereas in the 
first chapter they were rounded off. 

It is possible to make rough estimates of the increases 
in cost of a number of these items. An article in the 
School Board Journal for December, 1919 gave cost 

112 



data for 1914 and November, 1919 on five standard 
textbooks published by five different publishers. 1 
These books showed increases in price ranging from 
12 to 27 per cent over the pre-war figures. The aver- 
age was 20 per cent. This is probably too low an 
estimate of textbook cost in 1920, and certainly too 
low for 1921 and 1922. The wages of printers have 
practically doubled. The prices of paper and other 
materials are considerably more than double. These 
increased costs are being reflected in the price of text- 
books as fast as the stringent laws controlling con- 
tracts for the purchase of school texts will permit. 
The expenditures listed under supplies are largely 
affected by the price of paper. It is to be anticipated 
that the item "textbooks and supplies" will be prac- 
tically doubled. 

TABLE 14.— SCHOOL EXPENDITURES IN THE UNITED STATES 
OTHER THAN SALARIES AND OUTLAYS. 1918 



Object 


Per cent of total 


Fuel, water, light, etc. 
Textbooks and supplies 
Interest and fixed charges 
Maintenance 
Other 


7.8 
3.0 
2.8 
2.7 
4.0 


Total 


20.3 



An item of more importance is fuel, water, light, etc. 
Since fuel costs are in most cases back of the cost of 
water and light, the increases in fuel cost may be 

1 Dewey, Henry B. — The Cost of Textbooks. School Board 
Journal, LIX, 6, December, 1919, p. 26. 
8 113 



taken as a rough measure of the increases for the 
group. The Department of Labor index number for 
the price of coal shows an increase over the 1913 
prices of from 61 to 63 per cent for different kinds up 
to January, 1920. It is probable that later prices will 
be higher rather than lower than this level. 

The entry for maintenance is probably such a mix- 
ture of wages and materials as would be found in 
repairs of different kinds. The increases will be not 
unlike those in building, possibly not quite so high. 

The items of fixed charges and interest are, we 
may assume, changed very little from the 1918 level. 
The other items are too small or indeterminate to 
permit an estimate. 

A Summary Estimate 
The various factors are now sufficiently in hand to 
make possible a reasonable estimate of the increase 
of the entire school budget. Suppose we assume that 
in 1914 or 1915 school expenditures were divided in 
the average community as they were for the entire 
country in 1918, the first year for which detailed figures 
are available. We can then say that each $1,000 of 
school funds was distributed as in the first column of 
Table 15. It is possible to indicate in the next column 
how many times the cost of each principal item must 
be multiplied to give the 1920 figure. The third 
column gives the cost in 1920 of the same items 
which cost $1,000 in 1915. 

The total indicates that the same items of school 
expenditure will cost roughly twice as much in 1920 

114 



as in 1915. It should be noted that this figure does 
not allow for any increase in school efficiency, or in 
school accommodations. It is the sum required to 
buy the same kind and quantity of education the 
schools offered in 1915. The budget is conservative in 
many ways. The outlay figures take practically no 
account of the building deficit now being faced; the 
fuel figures do not allow for future increases; the 
interest figures do not provide for the higher interest 
rate necessary on new bonds; no increase is made in 
the "other" item because of lack of detailed informa- 
tion. The estimate is thoroughly conservative. 

TABLE 15.— SCHOOL COSTS IN 1920 FOR EACH $1,000 SPENT IN 

1915 



Object 


1915 


Ratio 


1920 


Salaries and wages 

Outlays 

Fuel, water, and light 

Textbooks and supplies 

Interest and fixed charges 

Maintenance 

Other 


$642 
155 
78 
30 
28 
27 
40 


2 
3 
1.6 

2 
1 
2 
1 


$1,284 
465 
125 
60 
28 
54 
40 


Total 


$1,000 




$2,056 



Will Prices and Wages Fall? 
Retail prices reached their peak at the time of the 
Civil War just as hostilities were drawing to a close. 
They fell off a little in the next three years and then 
receded somewhat more rapidly. They did not reach 
the pre-war level, however, until at least 15 years 
after the war. The situation was in several respects 

115 



favorable to a reduction of price levels. New land was 
being opened up. Manufacturing was undergoing 
rapid development. The industrial organization was 
not complicated and a few years of production 
counted more in meeting needs than they do today. 
On the other hand, the economic life of the South had 
been broken down and four years of war had changed 
the currents of business in the North. 

On these and other points it is possible to find sim- 
ilarities and dissimilarities between the situation then 
and now. The trend of prices depends on so many 
factors that it is practically impossible to secure all 
of the facts for a safe generalization. Probably the 
most reasonable argument for a similarity between 
the action of prices then and now is based on a neg- 
lect of the more incidental factors, many of which 
offset each other, and a closer attention to the more 
general aspects of the price movement. There was 
in both cases a rapid rise in prices brought about by 
the artificial conditions of war — conditions which 
included expanded currency and increased demands. 
When the artificial conditions are withdrawn the 
movement tends to subside. Operating against this 
tendency today there is a world demand for many 
American products, a scarcity of labor, and business 
prosperity. 

In the face of these facts it would not seem wise to 
forecast any rapid change in price levels. There are 
some indications in the curve for retail prices that we 
are reaching the high point. In other curves, such as 
that for building materials, the most recent increases 

116 



have been the largest. It would seem on the whole 
wise to expect some lowering of price levels within the 
next few years, but no return to pre-war conditions 
for many years, if at all. 

The case of wages and salaries is much clearer. 
After the Civil War some wages receded a little but 
only after several years. In fact during the entire 80 
year period for which we have figures there was never 
any considerable lowering of either wage or salary 
levels. It may be said with substantial truth that 
wages and salaries retain advances made. At present 
it is reasonably certain that a new salary level has 
been reached which is likely to be permanent. The 
experience of the past supports this reasoning, and 
today the factors making for the permanence of 
salary and wage increases are more powerful than 
ever before. 

In the making of school budgets no immediate 
relief is to be anticipated from lower prices. There 
may be slight recessions, but, in general, a higher 
level of prices and wages has been reached. On that 
level the school budget is approximately twice its 
pre-war size. 

Summary 
1. It will be necessary to pay teachers and other 
school workers twice as much in 1920 as was paid in 
1915 to secure the same grade of ability. 

2. A 100 per cent increase is fully as necessary in 
the higher paid, as in the lower paid, positions. 

3. The cost of school buildings is three times as 

117 



great as in 1915. There is a deficit in building accom- 
modations. 

4. It is estimated that text books and supplies and 
building maintenance will show increases of 100 per 
cent; and fuel, water, and light an increase of at least 
60 per cent over 1915 prices. 

5. To buy the same amounts of educational service 
in 1920 as in 1915 it will be necessary to double the 
school budget. 

6. No large recessions in prices or wages are to be 
anticipated immediately. We are on a new level of 
expenditure. 



118 



CHAPTER VII 

SOURCES OF INCOME 

Nearly four-fifths of all school revenues are derived 
from local taxation. The report of the United States 
Commissioner of Education for the year 1918 gives 
the percentages for that year as shown in Table 16. 



TABLE 16 —PER CENT OF SCHOOL REVENUE DERIVED FROM 
DIFFERENT SOURCES 


Local taxes 

State taxes 

Permanent funds and lands 

All other sources 


78.8 

13.7 

2.9 

4.6 


Total 


100.0 



The proportion received from state taxes was less in 
1918 than in 1915 and 1916. In fact there has been 
a tendency in the past 30 years, for which the figures 
are published in the reports of the Commissioner, for 
the state to contribute a constantly smaller share of 
the educational funds of the community. There was 
an important exception to this tendency between the 
years 1905 and 1915. During this period there was a 
distinct movement toward a larger contribution on 
the part of the state. The movement appears to have 
been interrupted in 1915. The problem of school 

119 



support continues to be in the main largely one of 
local finance. 

The General Property Tax 
The most important form of taxation in American 
communities is the general property tax. This is 




Diagram 30. — Sources of net revenue receipts of 146 cities in 
1918 



illustrated in Diagram 30 which shows what per- 
centage of the revenue receipts of 146 cities of over 
30,000 population was derived from different 

120 



sources. 1 The figures show that practically two- 
thirds of all revenue is from taxation on general 
property. 2 This tax is, moreover, the only important 
present local source of revenue which offers much 
room for expansion. License receipts will be greatly 
reduced this year. Earnings of public service enter- 
prises cannot easily be increased against the pres- 
ent resistance to higher charges for this type of 
service. Special assessments are only available to 
pay for specific improvements. It would appear 
that under the present scheme of taxation increased 
school revenue must come largely from the general 
property tax. 

School Costs Outstrip Property Values 
In the surveys which the Department of Labor made 
last year of the living expenses of families it was 
found that amounts paid for rent had increased less 
than any other item of family expenditure. In 
November, 1919, they had increased on the average 
about 35 per cent over 1914 costs while other items 
of expenditure had increased by amounts ranging 

bureau of the Census, Financial Statistics of Cities, 1918, 
p. 54. The figures for cities of over 30,000 population are the 
only ones available for local communities which are recent and 
reliable. The available evidence indicates that the procedure 
in raising funds in these cities may be taken as in general typ- 
ical of methods in smaller cities and towns as well. 

2 In 1918 more than 50 per cent of all state revenues came 
from taxation of general property and in 1913, the most recent 
year for which the figures are available, 76 per cent of all 
county revenue was secured from a general property tax. 
Hence school funds from state and county sources depend in 
considerable measure on the general property tax. 

121 



from nearly twice to three times as much. This is a 
reflection of the slowness with which real estate 
values feel the effects of price changes. Real property, 
which today constitutes the bulk of taxable pro- 
perty, 1 is not a commodity which changes hands very 
often. It is affected but slowly by changing costs of 
construction. Its rental value is fixed for long periods 
by leases. For these reasons the value of property 
has advanced too slowly, during the past 40 years, 
to meet the demands now being made upon it in the 
way of increased tax requirements. Figures are 
available in the publications of the Bureau of the 
Census to show, for cities of over 30,000 population 
in 1900, the increases in property value and those in 
school expenditures during the past four decades. 
The records are complete for 40 cities representative 
of different parts of the country. The 40 include 10 
eastern cities, 10 in the central states, 10 from the 
west, and 10 from the southern states. 2 

In the 40 cities, as shown in Table 17, the average 

1 In the United States as a whole the value of real estate 
constituted, at four periods of Census reports in 1880, 1890, 
1902, and 1912, almost exactly 75 per cent of the assessed value 
of all property subject to ad valorem taxation. For cities of 
more than 30,000 population the proportion has run nearer 85 
per cent. 

2 The cities are Hartford, Portland (Maine), Springfield 
(Mass.), Boston, Albany, New York, Philadelphia, Man- 
chester, Jersey City, Pittsburg, Chicago, LaCrosse, Minne- 
apolis, Grand Rapids, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Milwaukee, 
Indianapolis, Des Moines, Columbus (Ohio), Little Rock, 
Atlanta, New Orleans, Charleston, Nashville, San Antonio, 
Baltimore, Richmond, Louisville, Montgomery, Los Angeles, 
San Francisco, Sacramento, Oakland, Topeka, Lincoln, 
Omaha, Portland (Oregon), Salt Lake City, Denver. 

122 



expenditure for running expenses of schools in 1880 
was about $2.00 per inhabitant. The average 
assessed value of property was something more than 
$500. Both property and school costs have increased 
rapidly since that year, but rather unevenly. School 
costs increased but little between 1880 and 1890; 
property showed a considerable advance. In the 
following decade the situation was reversed. From 



TABLE 17.— ASSESSED VALUE OF PROPERTY AND CURRENT 
EXPENSES OF SCHOOLS PER INHABITANT IN 40 CITIES. 1880 

TO 1918i 



Year 


Value of 
property 


School costs 2 


1880 
1890 
1900 
1910 
1915 
1918 


$529 

632 

638 

824 

1015 

1021 


$2.05 
2.33 
3.16 
4.33 
5.40 
6.27 



1 The averages used are unweighted by size of city. They express the 
practice of the typical city. A weighted average would in this case be 
unduly swayed by the influence of a few cities. 

2 The figures for school costs include only current expenses; they do 
not include expenditures for new buildings and equipment and interest. 
The inclusion of building costs would give unreliable results where it is not 
possible to include figures covering a large number of consecutive years. 



1900 to 1915 the two increased approximately to- 
gether. Between 1915 and 1918, however, school 
costs forged ahead while property was practically 
at a standstill. The stagnation of the assessed value 
of property was doubtless due in part to the reluc- 
tance of municipalities to assess on the basis of values 

123 



accrued during the emergency until there was more 
assurance that those values were permanent. On the 
other hand, the actual advance in property values 
was certainly slower than advances in other commo- 
dities. 1 

The significance of 40 years of change in school 
costs and property values is more clearly realized 
if we think of the relative growth of the two. This 
relative change is illustrated by Diagram 31 which 
gives the figures of Table 17 as percentages, taking 
as 100 per cent the levels for the year 1880. The 
white column in each pair shows the value of prop- 
erty, and the black column school costs. For every 
period since 1890, school costs have risen relatively 
faster than the assessed value of property. During 
the entire span of nearly 40 years school costs 
have tripled in amount while property values have 
doubled. 

Still another way to illustrate the changes which 
have taken place is utilized in Diagram 32 which 
shows the average payment for schools for each 
$1,000 of assessed valuation of property in the 40 
cities. School costs have been a constantly growing 
charge against property values. The amount for 

1 During the past 40 years the rising tax rate has had some 
influence in retarding the growth of land values, as a rising tax 
rate means a reduction of net rent and hence of capitalized 
value. Retardation from this cause would not affect the 
capacity of the land to produce taxes. The increase in tax 
rates has been so small, however, that it has had no large in- 
fluence on the lag in property values. The principal factor 
operating has been the slowness of property values to respond 
to the mounting value of the dollar and the rising interest rate. 

124 



1918 is more than half again as large as in 1880. If 
school costs should continue to increase faster than 



I 1 Property value 
■ School ooets 




1880 1890 1900 1910 1915 I?" 



Diagram 31. — Assessed value of property and school current 
expenditures for each inhabitant in 40 cities from 1880 to 1918 
in per cents of 1880 levels 



property values, and if school needs should continue 
to be met largely by the property tax, there would 

125 



come a time when schools required the entire rental 
value of the property of a community. 

6.1U 




1880 1890 1900 1910 191« 



Diagram 32. — School costs for each $1,000 of assessed value 
of property in 40 cities. 1880 to 1918 

Keeping Down the Tax Rate 

Various methods have been found so that the in- 
crease in school costs would not result wholly in in- 
creased tax rates. The assessment ratio has been 

126 



raised so that property is assessed at nearer to its true 
value. Other expenditures have been kept down so 



Tax rate - cents on each 
dollar of assessed validation 



Per cent assessment 
was of true valuation 




1880 1890 1900 1910 1918 




1890 1900 .1910 1915 1918 



Per cent school costs were 
of city expenditures 




1890 1900 1910 1918 



Dollars of per capita debt 
66 




1880 1890 1900 1910 1918 



Diagram 33. — Methods of meeting advancing municipal costs 
in 40 cities 



that school costs have become a larger percentage of 
total municipal current expenditures. New buildings 

127 



and highways have been paid for by the sale of bonds 
so that the municipal debt has been greatly in- 
creased. The increases in 40 cities in these respects 
are shown in Diagram 33. l The city tax rate 2 has 
been increased only from 1.9 cents to 2.4 cents on a 
dollar. The real increase is considerably larger be- 
cause, according to the estimates of the Bureau of 
the Census, the ratio of assessment to true value of 
property has been increased from 58 per cent to 74 
per cent. The per capita debt in 1880 still reflected 
Civil War finances. It reached its lowest point in 
1890 at $37 per person. It has now risen to $66. 
The interest on this debt amounts to a larger sum 
per person each year than the total cost for schools in 
1880. 

An Increasing Share for Schools 
The proportion school costs are of total city expen- 
ditures for current expenses is worthy of more de- 
tailed comment. Education has for many years in- 
volved the largest single expenditure made by cities. 
The percentages which go to different objects are 
shown in Diagram 34, which is taken from the Finan- 
cial Statistics of Cities for 19 18. 3 The figures differ 
slightly from those of Diagram 33 because the 
average is weighted. The expenditures for education 

1 The figures of Diagram 33, like the earlier figures of this 
chapter, are unweighted averages which give typical city pro- 
cedures rather than the procedure for all cities. 

2 The diagram shows the tax rate for city purposes, not in- 
cluding state and county taxes. 

s Page 87. 

128 



are three times as large as any other single expendi- 
ture. In the past 15 years four of the items have de- 
creased in relative importance and four have in- 
creased. The four which have decreased in their 
relation to the total are the police department, 
general government, highways, and fire department. 



Beer nation 
4* 




Diagram 34. — Departmental expenses of cities of more than 
30,000 population in 1918 

The four which have increased are all directly 
humanitarian in aim: education; sanitation; char- 
ities, hospitals, and corrections; and recreation. It is 
evidently the intention of the American people to 
expand the work of government in these directions. 
9 129 



The city is taking over functions which were formerly 
personal and individual. For these purposes, and 
especially for education, other expenses have been 
kept down, the tax rate has been increased, the 
assessment ratio raised, and heavy debts incurred. 
There are now distinct limits to further increases in 
city debts. The typical city is bonded nearly to the 
legal limit. With the increase in the general level of 
costs other city departments cannot give way further 
for the expansion of education. The problem is one 
of finding new revenue. 

Sources of Increased Revenues 
From the evidence of the past it is clear that the 
American people believe so firmly in education that 
they will furnish the funds which are necessary, not 
simply for keeping the schools on current levels of 
efficiency, but for ensuring their continuous expan- 
sion and improvement. There is no real question 
about the ability of the people to pay for good 
schools. The unsettled problem is the means by 
which the funds are to be provided. It is not within 
the purpose of this study to venture a prediction as to 
the exact methods which will be employed in the 
solution of the problem. In the opinion of the writer 
there are, however, certain general principles bearing 
on the solution which may appropriately be summa- 
rized. 

The evidence introduced in the early part of this 
chapter makes it clear that in American cities during 
the past 40 years a tax known as the general property 

130 



tax, but based largely on real estate values, has been 
without any question the largest and most reliable 
source of revenue. It would appear to be the only 
local tax now used on a large scale which offers room 
for expansion. Any consideration of projects for 
increased revenue must begin by weighing the 
possibility of an increase in the property tax. 

A tax which is based primarily on real estate values 
possesses certain virtues from the point of view of the 
theory of taxation. Real estate is tangible as is no 
other property. It is quite impossible to assess as 
equitably or collect as surely an income tax, or an 
excess profits tax. Land and buildings are con- 
stantly in public notice, and their true values are 
known through frequent transactions. No other tax 
has these advantages in so marked degree. 

There are further advantages. Real property in 
a peculiar sense takes its value from the community. 
Land which is not agricultural or rich in minerals is 
not of value in itself. It is valuable because people 
are near it. In taxing real property, and particularly 
land, the public simply takes back some of the value 
which it has given. This attribute of real property 
has more than a theoretical bearing on the case. The 
fact that real property takes its value from the 
community causes its value to increase in a general 
way at the same pace as the needs of the community. 
With greatly enlarged wants in the last 50 years, this 
increase in the value of property has not kept pace, 
but the tendency is nevertheless present in large de- 
gree; and today, while property has lagged far be- 

131 



hind costs of commodities and wages in its increase 
in value there is evidence for believing that the 
difference will eventually largely be made up. Rents 
are now increasing at a rapid pace. The selling value 
of property, which reflects rental values, will follow 
their increase. Property values move more slowly 
than other values, but they do move with changes in 
the community and they move with great momen- 
tum. Even with present tax rates, larger revenues 
will be forthcoming from the general property tax 
because of increased values. 

But there seems no good reason to believe that 
general property has been taxed all that it will bear. 
The best evidence on this score is the record of the 
actual tax rates which are in force in the cities of the 
United States. In the 226 cities of more than 30,000 
population in 1918, the tax rates for all purposes, in- 
cluding state and county taxes, on the estimated true 
value of property ranged from nine mills to 3.4 cents 
on the dollar. In other words, some cities paid taxes 
nearly four times as heavy as others. A large number 
paid taxes at twice as high a rate as many others. 
If there were any definite economic limit to the 
burden which property would bear, it would be ex- 
pected that tax rates would be grouped near that 
limit. This is not the case. The distribution of tax 
rates in 1918 shows two places on the scale where 
cities tend to group. A large number have tax rates 
from 14 to 17 mills, and another large number from 
20 to 22 mills. There is no evidence of a limit which 
cities are approaching. 

132 



The city tax rates do not appear to be determined 
by the operation of economic laws. There is only a 
slight relationship between tax rates and wealth. 1 
In a number of cases the rates are fixed by state laws. 
In most they seem to be determined largely by the 
customs and ideals of the people. The city and state 
which want to support schools will do so. The city 
and state which have real civic pride find it possible 
to tax themselves heavily for the common good. 

The writer has not been able to discover a defi- 
nite limitation in the way of a considerable increase 
of the tax on real estate, and especially on land in 
American communities. Such a tax appears funda- 
mentally sound in theory. A still further reason for 
hope in increased revenue from this source is found 
in the improvement in recent years in the adminis- 
tration of property taxation. A stigma has become 
attached to the general property tax because that tax 
has included an assessment on intangible personal 
property. The tendency in recent years has been 
away from this element of the tax to such a degree 
that in recent years personal property values have 
constituted considerably less than one-fifth of all 
taxable property in American cities, and of this per- 
sonal property a considerable part was tangible. The 
other great improvement of recent years in the ad- 
ministration of the property tax is in the method of 



1 Coefficients of correlation have been computed between a 
number of the different financial records of the 40 cities pre- 
viously listed. These coefficients show no especially significant 
relationships between the different records. 

133 



assessing property. It may now be said that the 
technique of assessing real estate equitably has been 
mastered. A few years should see sound methods 
widely established. 

For these various reasons the writer inclines to- 
wards the belief that taxation of real estate values, 
and especially of unoccupied land, will be a major 
source of enlarged school revenues for a number of 
years to come. Other forms of taxation will doubtless 
be utilized. The solutions reached by different states, 
cities, and towns will depend in some degree on local 
conditions. The one great certainty is that the 
American people will find the funds, not simply to 
restore the schools to their pre-war potency, but to 
make possible still more extended and more effective 
education. 

Summary 
1. Nearly four-fifths of school revenues are derived 
from local taxation. 

2. Two-thirds of all city revenues come from the 
tax on general property values. 

3. In the past 40 years in cities school costs have 
tripled in size while the assessed value of property has 
doubled. 

4. To meet past advances in school and other muni- 
cipal costs, tax rates have been raised, the assessment 
ratio increased, debts have been increased, and a larger 
percentage of all revenues devoted to school purposes. 

5. Present needs cannot be met by adjustments in 
city budgets. They call for large additional revenue. 

134 



6. It seems probable that a tax on real estate 
values will furnish a large share of new revenue for 
schools. 

7. The real estate tax is a sound method of taxa- 
tion, and, in spite of large increases in the tax rate in 
recent years, there are no indications that the limit 
which real property can bear has been reached. 

8. It is clear from the record of the past that the 
American people are so interested in education that 
in one way or another they will provide the funds to 
meet present school needs. 



135 



APPENDIX I 

Method of Determining the Trend Line for Average 

Daily Attendance in All Public Schools From 

1870 to 1918 

Diagram 1 on page 16 shows in graphic form the number of 
children in average daily attendance in all public schools from 
1870 to 1918. The original data are presented in Table 1. The 
problem is to determine the straight line which will most 
truly represent the trend of the irregular line for attendance 
data in the diagram. Since the data run by years, the slant of 
the trend line will be determined by a constant figure showing 
the amount that the trend line will move upward for each ad- 
vancing year. This figure will be the coefficient of regression, 
which is the measure telling how much change takes place in 
one of two series of paired values for each change of one unit 
in the other series. If we arrange the data so that the first 
series is made up of the years, and the second series of the 
attendance figures, and call the deviations from the average in 
the first series x and those in the second series y, the formula 
which will give the coefficient of regression for the x series 

will be: 2xv 

Coefficient of regression = — ^r- 

Z/X 

The coefficient is computed from the deviations of the separate 
measures of each series from their averages. The table 
giving the data on which these principles are to be applied 
begins as follows: 

Year Attendance 

1870 4,077,347 

1871 4,545,317 

1872 4,658,844 

1873 4,745,459 

1874 5,050,840 

1875 5,248,114 

136 



In carrying through the computations there are two rules 
which will greatly reduce the necessary work. The first is to 
convert the exact figures to round numbers, and the second is 
to subtract from the series the greatest number that it is 
possible to take away and still leave a remainder in the case of 
each number. In this case the original figures may be stated 
in terms of hundreds of thousands of children, and four million 
may be subtracted from every number. This will give us in 
the first year 100,000 children in excess of four million, 500,000 
in the second year, 700,000 in the third year and so on. By 
observing this procedure the table may be rewritten, sub- 
stituting for the dates the numbers 1, 2, 3, etc., to designate the 
first year of the series, the second year of the series, the third 
year of the series, and so on. The table as thus rewritten be- 
gins as follows: 

Year Attendance 

1 1 

2 5 

3 7 

4 7 

5 11 

6 12 

To carry through the work indicated by the formula we now 
need to find the sum of the squares of the deviations of the first 
of these two series away from their average. The number will 
be the Sx 2 of the formula. This computation is simple. In 
any series of numbers the sum of the squares of the deviations 
from the average is equal to the sum of the squares of the 
numbers in the series minus the product of the total of the 
series and its average. 1 The first step is to find the sum of the 
squares of the numbers in the first series. In an unbroken 
series of natural numbers beginning with one, the sum of the 
squares of the numbers of the series is equal to 

n (n + 1) (2n + 1) 



1 Ayres, Leonard P. A shorter method for computing the 
coefficient of correlation. Journal of Educational Research, 
April, 1920. 

137 



Since there are 49 years in this series, the sum of the squares of 
these 49 consecutive numbers is 

49(50X M m 40425 
o 

The sum of a series of natural numbers beginning with one is 

n (n + 1) 
2 
or in this case 

4 A*i° = 1225 

The average of a series of 49 numbers beginning with one is the 
middle number or 25. Having these three numbers we may 
determine that in this series the sum of the squares of the 
deviations away from their average is 

40425 - (1225 X 25) = 40425 - 30625 = 9800 

Similar methods are followed in finding the sum of the 
products of the deviations of the two series. The first step is 
to find the pair-products of the two series. This is done by 
direct multiplication and gives for the first part of the table 
the following results: 



ear 


Attendance 


Pair-Products 


1 


1 


1 


2 


5 


10 


3 


7 


21 


4 


7 


28 


5 


11 


55 


6 


12 


72 



The totals of the second and third columns are found by addi- 
tion. The sum of the products of the deviations of the two 
series may now be found by subtracting from the sum of the 
pair-products of the original numbers the amount found by 
multiplying the sum of the second of the two original series by 
the average of the first. The average of the numbers in the 
first series is 25, the sum of those in the second series is 2615, 
and their product is 65,375. The sum of the pair-products is 
87,766, which reduced by 65,375 leaves 22,391. This is the 

138 



2xy of the formula. The coefficient of regression now be- 
comes : 

2xv 22391 



2x 2 9800 



2.2847 



Since the unit in which we are dealing is 100,000, this means 
that the general trend showed an increase in average daily 
attendance of 228,470 for each advancing year during the 
period. 

The next problem is to find the location of this trend line 
now that we know its slant. This is determined by finding 
the average of the attendance figures, which in this case is 
9,337,000, and which falls in the twenty-fifth year of the 
series, or 1894. By taking this number and this year as 
the pivot point, and using the constant of the coefficient of 
regression, one may readily find the point through which the 
line would run in any other year of the series. 1 

1 Other details and applications of this method are explained 
in an article by Dr. Leonard P. Ayres in the Journal of Edu- 
cational Research for May, 1920. 



139 



INDEX 



Aldrich report, 29, 70, 90 

Annual wages, difficulty of compu- 
tation, 73 

Army officers, resignations of, 109 

Artisans' wages in building trades, 
95 

Artisans' wages compared with sal- 
aries of city teachers, 76 

Artisans' wages, index numbers for, 
67 

Assessment ratio in 40 cities, 127 

Attendance, average daily in U. S., 
13 

Attendance and cost of schools com- 
pared, 19 



Bonds, difficulty in floating, 112 
Books, cost in 1920, 113 
Boston school buildings, 102 
Budget, school requirements in 

1920, 115 
Building costs index numbers, 90 
Building costs, share in school bud- 
get, 88 
Building economies, 105 
Building materials, index numbers, 

91 
Building shortage, 110 
Building trades, wages in, 95 



Carpenters' wages, 70, 95 
Chicago school buildings, 103 
City debts, 127 

City expenditures analyzed, 129 
City revenue, sources of, 120 
City tax rates, 127, 132 
Civil War: Effect on prices, 51, 56, 
115; effect on salaries, 35, 62, 117 
Cleveland school buildings, 97 
Coefficients of regression, 136 
Correlation between wages and the 

cost of living, 66, 68 
Cost of living index numbers, 54 
Cost of living compared with teach- 
ers' salaries, 56 
Cost of schools and attendance com- 
pared, 19 



Cost of schools in 1920, 115 
Cost of schools in United States 
1870 to 1918, 15 

Debts, increase of, in cities, 127 

Economies in building, 105 
Employment, annual in trades, 73 
Engel's law, 51 
Expenditures of cities, 129 
Expenditures for schools in 1918, 21 
Expenditures of typical family, 51 

Falkner, Roland P., 29 
Family budget, 51 
Farm laborers' wages, 72 
Food, cost of typical items, 47 
Food, share in family budget, 51 
Foremen, wages of, 72 
Fuel costs in 1920, 114 

General property tax, 120, 130 

Income, sources of school, 119 
Index numbers: For building mate- 
rials, 91 ; for cost of buildings, 93 ; 
for cost of living, 54; method of, 
26; for teachers' salaries, 32; for 
wages, 71, 95; for wholesale and 
retail prices, 50 

Laborers' wages, index numbers, 67 
Laborers' wages compared with 

teachers' salaries, 74 
Land tax, advantages of, 131 
Letter carriers' wages, 72 
Lumber and building materials, 91 

Men teachers, percentage of, 43 
Moore, Professor H. L., 65 

New York school buildings, 100 

Price changes, 1841 to 1919, 46 
Prices, permanence of present lev- 
els, 115 



141 



Property values, increase in, 121 
Property tax, administration of, 133 
Purchasing power of teachers' sal- 
aries, 61 

Real property, value of tax on, 131 
Regression line, computation of, 17, 

136 
Rent, family expenditure for, 52 
Retail prices, compared with whole- 
sale, 51 
Revenue, sources of city, 120 
Revenue, sources of school, 119 

Salary requirements in 1920, 107 
School buildings, cost of, 88 
School costs in 1920, 115 
School expenditures in U. S. 1870 to 

1918 , 15 
School, revenue, sources of, 119 
Skilled labor, wages of, 67 
Sources of city revenue, 120 
Sources of school revenue, 119 
Standard of living, 47 
Standards for teachers' salaries, 85 
State taxes for schools, 119 



Tax rates, in cities, 127, 132 

Tax rates, influence on land values, 

124 
Teachers' salaries, average, 1915 to 

1920, 43 
Teachers' salaries compared with 

artisans' wages, 76, 84 



Teachers' salaries compared with 

the cost of living, 56 
Teachers' salaries compared with 

laborers' wages, 72, 83 
Teachers' salaries, index numbers, 

32 
Teachers' salaries, purchasing power 

of, 61 
Teachers' salaries, standards for, 85, 

107 
Teachers' salaries, weekly basis for, 

33 73 
Textbooks, cost in 1920, 113 
Trend lines, computation of, 17, 136 



Unemployment in trades, 73 



Wages of artisans, 67 

Wages of building artisans, 95 

Wages of farm labor, 72 

Wages, index numbers for, 67 

Wages of foremen, 72 

Wages, laws of, 65 

Wages of letter carriers, 72 

Wages of skilled and unskilled labor, 
69 

Weekly salary, as a basis for index 
numbers, 33, 73 

Wholesale prices compared with re- 
tail, 50 

Women teachers 

average salaries, 59 
professional status, 42 



142 



MONOGRAPH PUBLICATIONS OF THE 
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 



CLEVELAND EDUCATION SURVEY REPORTS 

These reports are bound volumes. They will be sent post- 
paid for 25 cents per volume with the exception of " Meas- 
uring the Work of the Public Schools" by Judd, " The 
Cleveland School Survey" by Ayres, and "Wage Earning 
and Education" by Lutz. These three volumes will be sent 
for one dollar each. 

Child Accounting in the Public Schools — Ayres. 

Educational Extension — Perry. 

Education through Recreation — Johnson. 

Financing the Public Schools — Clark. 

Health Work in the Public Schools — Ayres. 

Household Arts and School Lunches — Boughton. 

Measuring the Work of the Public Schools — Judd. 

Overcrowded Schools and the Platoon Plan — Hart- 
well. 

School Buildings and Equipment — Ayres. 

Schools and Classes for Exceptional Children — Mit- 
chell. 

School Organization and Administration — Ayres. 

The Public Library and the Public Schools — Ayres 
and McKinnie. 

The School and the Immigrant — Miller. 

The Teaching Staff — Jessup. 

What the Schools Teach and Might Teach— Bobbitt. 

The Cleveland School Survey (Summary) — Ayres. 



Boys and Girls in Commercial Work — Stevens. 

Department Store Occupations — O'Leary. 

Dressmaking and Millinery — Bryner. 

Railroad and Street Transportation — Fleming. 

The Building Trades— Shaw. 

The Garment Trades — Bryner. 

The Metal Trades— Lutz. 

The Printing Trades — Shaw. 

Wage Earning and Education (Summary) — Lutz. 



RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION EDUCATION 
MONOGRAPHS 

A Measuring Scale for Ability in Spelling — Ayres. 

58 pages. Report, bound in cloth, 30 cents. Scale, 
10 cents. 

An Index Number for State School Systems — Ayres. 
70 pages. Report, bound in cloth, 75 cents. 

Trends of School Costs — Burgess. 

144 pages. Report, bound in cloth, one dollar. 

The Measurement of Silent Reading — Burgess. 
125 pages. Report, bound in cloth, 85 cents. 



SCALES FOR MEASURING CLASSROOM PRODUCTS 

Scale for Measuring the Quality of Handwriting of 
School Children. 10 cents. 

Scale for Measuring the Quality of Handwriting of 
Adults. 10 cents. 

Measuring Scale for Ability in Spelling. 10 cents. 

Measuring Scale for Ability in Silent Reading. One 
dollar per hundred. 



SPRINGFIELD SCHOOL SURVEY 

A Report of the School Survey of Springfield, 111. 
Ayres. 1914. 
152 pages. Report, bound in paper, 25 cents. 



